WOMAN    AND    WOMANHOOD 


BY  DR.   C.   W.    SALEEBY 

WOMAN  AND  WOMANHOOD 
HEALTH,    STRENGTH   AND  HAPPINESS 
THE  CYCLE  OF  LIFE 
EVOLUTION:  THE  MASTER  KEY 
WORRY:  THE  DISEASE  OF  THE  AGE 

THE  CONQUEST  OF  CANCER:    A  PLAN 
OF  CAMPAIGN 

PARENTHOOD  AND  RACE  CULTURE 


WOMAN 
AND  WOMANHOOD 

A   SEARCH   FOR   PRINCIPLES 
by 

C.  W.  SALEEBY 

ii 

M.D,,  F.R.S.E.,  Ch.B.,  F.Z.S. 

Fellow  of  the  Obstetrical  Society  of  Edinburgh  and  for- 
merly Resident  Physician  Edinburgh  Maternity 
Hospital;   Vice-President  Divorce  Law 
Reform    Union;    Member   of  the 
Royal  Institution  and  of 
Council  of  the  Socio- 
logical Society. 


MITCHEIJL  KENNERLEY 

NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 
MCMXI 


Copyright   1911  by 
Mitchell   Kennerley 


Press  ofj.  J.  Little  &  Ives  C*. 

East  Twenty-fourth  Street 

New  York 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I.  FIRST  PRINCIPLES  1 

II.  THE  LIFE  OF  THE  WORLD  TO  COME  34 

III.  THE  PURPOSE  OF  WOMANHOOD  52 

IV.  THE  LAW  OF  CONSERVATION  64 

V.  THE  DETERMINATION  OF  SEX  72 

VI.  MENDELISM  AND  WOMANHOOD  81 

VII.  BEFORE  WOMANHOOD  92 

VIII.  THE  PHYSICAL  TRAINING  OF  GIRLS  99 

IX.  THE  HIGHER  EDUCATION  OF  WOMEN  128 

X.  THE  PRICE  OF  PRUDERY  132 

XL  EDUCATION  FOR  MOTHERHOOD  151 

XII.  THE  MATERNAL  INSTINCT  163 

XIII.  CHOOSING  THE  FATHERS  OF  THE  FUTURE  193 

XIV.  THE  MARRIAGE  AGE  FOR  GIRLS  197 

XV.  THE  FIRST  NECESSITY  219 

XVI.  ON  CHOOSING  A  HUSBAND  234 

XVII.  THE  CONDITIONS  OF  MARRIAGE  258 

XVIII.  THE  CONDITIONS  OF  DIVORCE  291 

XIX.  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MOTHERS  296 

XX.  WOMEN  AND  ECONOMICS  327 

XXI.  THE  CHIEF  ENEMY  OF  WOMEN  348 

XXII.  CONCLUSION  386 


260080 


WOMAN    AND    WOMANHOOD 

CHAPTER    I 

FIRST    PRINCIPLES 

WE  are  often  and  rightly  reminded  that  woman  is 
half  the  human  race.  It  is  truer  even  than  it  appears, 
Not  only  is  woman  half  of  the  present  generation, 
but  present  woman  is  half  of  all  the  generations  of 
men  and  women  to  come.  The  argument  of  this 
book,  which  will  be  regarded  as  reactionary  by  many 
women  called  "  advanced  " — presumably  as  doctors 
say  that  a  case  of  consumption  is  "  advanced  " —  in- 
volves nothing  other  than  adequate  recognition  of 
the  importance  of  woman  in  the  most  important  of 
all  matters.  It  is  true  that  my  primary  concern  has 
been  to  furnish,  for  the  individual  woman  and  for 
those  in  charge  of  girlhood,  a  guide  of  life  based 
upon  the  known  physiology  of  sex.  But  it  is  a  poor 
guide  of  life  which  considers  only  the  transient  in- 
dividual, and  poorest  of  all  in  this  very  case. 

If  it  were  true  that  woman  is  merely  the  vessel  and 
custodian  of  the  future  lives  of  men  and  women,  en- 
trusted to  her  ante-natal  care  by  their  fathers,  as 


2  Woman  and  Womanhood 

many  creeds  have  supposed,  then  indeed  it  would  be 
a  question  of  relatively  small  moment  how  the  moth- 
ers of  the  future  were  chosen.  Our  ingenious  devices 
for  ensuring  the  supremacy  of  man  lend  colour  to  this 
idea.  We  name  children  after  their  fathers,  and  the 
fact  that  they  are  also  to  some  extent  of  the  maternal 
stock  is  obscured. 

But  when  we  ask  to  what  extent  they  are  also  of 
maternal  stock,  we  find  that  there  is  a  rigorous 
equality  between  the  sexes  in  this  matter.  It  is  a 
fact  which  has  been  ignored  or  inadequately  recog- 
nized by  every  feminist  and  by  every  eugenist  from 
Plato  until  the  present  time.  Salient  qualities, 
whether  good  or  ill,  are  more  commonly  displayed 
by  men  than  by  women.  Great  strength  or  physical 
courage  or  endurance,  great  ability  or  genius,  to- 
gether with  a  variety  of  abnormalities,  are  much 
more  commonly  found  in  men  than  in  women,  and 
the  eugenic  emphasis  has  therefore  always  been  laid 
upon  the  choice  of  fathers  rather  than  of  mothers. 
Not  so  long  ago,  the  scion  of  a  noble  race  must  marry, 
not  at  all  necessarily  the  daughter  of  another  noble 
race,  but  rather  any  young  healthy  woman  who  prom- 
ised to  be  able  to  bear  children  easily  and  suckle 
them  long.  But  directly  we  observe,  under  the  micro- 
scope, the  facts  of  development,  we  discover  that  each 
parent  contributes  an  exactly  equal  share  to  the  mak- 
ing of  the  new  individual,  and  all  the  ancient  and 
modern  ideas  of  the  superior  value  of  well-selected  fa- 
therhood fall  to  the  ground.  Woman  is  indeed  half 
the  race.  In  virtue  of  expectant  motherhood  and  her 


First  Principles  3 

ante-natal  nurture  of  us  all,  she  might  well  claim  to 
be  more,  but  she  is  half  at  least. 

And  thus  it  matters  for  the  future  at  least  as  much 
how  the  mothers  are  chosen  as  how  the  fathers  are. 
This  remains  true,  notwithstanding  that  the  differences 
between  men,  commending  them  for  selection  or  re- 
jection, seem  so  much  more  conspicuous  and  important 
than  in  the  case  of  women. 

For,  in  the  first  place,  the  differences  between 
women  are  much  greater  than  appear  when,  for  in- 
stance, we  read  history  as  history  is  at  present  under- 
stood, or  when  we  observe  and  compare  the  world 
and  his  wife.  Uniformity  or  comparative  uniformity 
of  environment  is  a  factor  of  obvious  importance  in 
tending  to  repress  the  natural  differences  between 
women.  Reverse  the  occupations  and  surroundings 
of  the  sexes,  and  it  might  be  found  that  men  were 
"  much  of  a  muchness,"  and  women  various  and  in- 
dividualized, to  a  surprising  extent. 

But,  even  allowing  for  this,  it  is  difficult  to  question 
that  men  as  individuals  do  differ,  for  good  and  for 
evil,  more  than  women  as  individuals.  Such  a  malady 
as  haemophilia,  for  instance,  sharply  distinguishes  a 
certain  number  of  men  from  the  rest  of  their  sex, 
whereas  women,  not  subject  to  the  disease,  are  not 
thus  distinguished,  as  individuals. 

But  the  very  case  here  cited  serves  to  illustrate  the 
fallacy  of  studying  the  individual  as  an  individual 
only,  and  teaches  that  there  is  a  second  reason  why 
the  selection  of  women  for  motherhood  is  more  im- 
portant than  is  so  commonly  supposed.  In  the  mat- 


4  Woman  and  Womanhood 

ter  of,  for  instance,  haemophilia,  men  appear  sharply 
contrasted  among  themselves  and  women  all  similar. 
Yet  the  truth  is  that  men  and  women  differ  equally  in 
this  very  respect.  Women  do  not  suffer  from  haemo- 
philia, but  they  convey  it.  Just  as  definitely  as  one 
man  is  haemophilic  and  another  is  not,  so  one  woman 
will  convey  haemophilia  and  another  will  not.  The 
abnormality  is  present  in  her,  but  it  is  latent;  or,  as  we 
shall  see  the  Mendelians  would  say,  "  recessive  "  in- 
stead of  u  dominant." 

Now  I  am  well  assured  that  if  we  could  study  not 
only  the  patencies  but  also  the  latencies  of  individuals 
of  both  sexes,  we  should  find  that  they  vary  equally. 
Women,  as  individuals,  appear  more  similar  than  men, 
but  as  individuals  conveying  latent  or  "  recessive  " 
characters  which  will  appear  in  their  children,  espe- 
cially their  male  children,  they  are  just  as  various  as 
men  are.  The  instance  of  haemophilia  is  conclusive, 
for  two  women,  each  equally  free  from  it,  will  re- 
spectively bear  normal  and  haemophilic  children;  but 
this  is  probably  only  one  among  many  far  more  im- 
portant cases.  I  incline  to  believe  that  certain  ner- 
vous qualities,  many  of  great  value  to  humanity,  tend 
to  be  latent  in  women,  just  as  haemophilia  does.  Two 
women  may  appear  very  similar  in  mind  and  capac- 
ity, but  one  may  come  of  a  distinguished  stock,  and 
the  other  of  an  undistinguished.  In  the  first  woman, 
herself  unremarkable,  high  ability  may  be  latent,  and 
her  sons  may  demonstrate  it.  It  is  therefore  every 
whit  as  important  that  the  daughters  of  able  and  dis- 
tinguished stock  shall  marry  as  that  the  sons  shall. 


First  Principles  5 

It  remains  true  even  though  the  sons  may  themselves 
be  obviously  distinguished  and  the  daughters  may  not. 

The  conclusion  of  this  matter  is  that  scientific  in- 
quiry completely  demonstrates  the  equal  importance 
of  the  selection  of  fathers  and  of  mothers.  If  our 
modern  knowledge  of  heredity  is  to  be  admitted  at 
all,  it  follows  that  the  choice  of  women  for  mother- 
hood is  of  the  utmost  moment  for  the  future  of  man- 
kind. Woman  is  half  the  race;  and  the  leaders  of 
the  woman's  movement  must  recognize  the  impor- 
tance of  their  sex  in  this  fundamental  question  of 
eugenics.  At  present  they  do  not  do  so;  indeed,  no 
one  does.  But  the  fact  remains.  As  before  all  things 
a  Eugenist,  and  responsible,  indeed,  for  that  name,  I 
cannot  ignore  it  in  the  following  pages.  There  is  not 
only  to-day  to  think  of,  but  to-morrow.  The  eugenics 
which  ignores  the  natural  differences  between  women 
as  individuals,  and  their  still  greater  natural  differ- 
ences as  potential  parents,  is  only  half  eugenics;  the 
leading  women  who  in  any  way  countenance  such 
measures  as  deprive  the  blood  of  the  future  of  its 
due  contribution  from  the  best  women  of  the  present, 
are  leading  not  only  one  sex  but  the  race  as  a  whole 
to  ruin. 

If  women  were  not  so  important  as  Nature  has 
made  them,  none  of  this  would  matter.  To  insist 
upon  it  is  only  to  insist  upon  the  importance  of  the 
sex.  The  remarkable  fact,  which  seems  to  me  to 
make  this  protest  and  the  forthcoming  pages  so 
necessary,  is  that  the  leading  feminists  do  not  recog- 
nize the  all-importance  of  their  sex  in  this  regard, 


6  Woman  and  Womanhood 

They  must  be  accused  of  neglecting  it  and  of  not 
knowing  how  important  they  are.  They  consider  the 
present  only,  and  not  the  composition  of  the  future. 
Like  the  rest  of  the  world,  I  read  their  papers  and 
manifestoes,  their  speeches  and  books,  and  have  done 
so,  and  have  subscribed  to  them,  for  years;  but  no 
one  can  refer  me  to  a  single  passage  in  any  of  these 
where  any  feminist  or  suffragist,  in  Great  Britain,  at 
least,  militant  or  non-militant,  has  set  forth  the  prin- 
ciple, beside  which  all  others  are  trivial,  that  the  best 
women  must  be  the  mothers  of  the  future. 

Yet  this  which  is  thus  ignored  matters  so  much  that 
other  things  matter  only  in  so  far  as  they  affect  it.  As 
I  have  elsewhere  maintained,  the  eugenic  criterion  is 
the  first  and  last  of  every  measure  of  reform  or  re- 
action that  can  be  proposed  or  imagined.  Will  it 
make  a  better  race?  Will  the  consequence  be  that 
more  of  the  better  stocks,  of  both  sexes,  contribute 
to  the  composition  of  future  generations?  In  other 
words,  the  very  first  thing  that  the  feminist  movement 
must  prove  is  that  it  is  eugenic.  If  it  be  so,  its  claims 
are  unchallengeable;  if  it  be  what  may  contrariwise 
be  called  dysgenic,  no  arguments  in  its  favour  are 
of  any  avail.  Yet  the  present  champions  of  the  wom- 
an's cause  are  apparently  unaware  that  this  ques- 
tion exists.  They  do  not  know  how  important  their 
sex  is. 

Thinkers  in  the  past  have  known,  and  many  critics 
in  the  present,  though  unaware  of  the  eugenic  idea,  do 
perceive,  that  woman  can  scarcely  be  better  employed 
than  in  the  home.  Herbert  Spencer,  notably,  argued 


First  Principles  7 

that  we  must  not  include,  in  the  estimate  of  a  nation's 
assets,  those  activities  of  woman  the  development  of 
which  is  incompatible  with  motherhood.  To-day,  the 
natural  differences  between  individuals  of  both  sexes, 
and  the  importance  of  their  right  selection  for  the 
transmission  of  their  characters  to  the  future,  are 
clearly  before  the  minds  of  those  who  think  at  all  on 
these  subjects.  On  various  occasions  I  have  raised 
this  issue  between  Feminism  and  Eugenics,  suggesting 
that  there  are  varieties  of  feminism,  making  various 
demands  for  women  which  are  utterly  to  be  con- 
demned because  they  not  merely  ignore  eugenics,  but 
are  opposed  to  it,  and  would,  if  successful,  be  there- 
fore ruinous  to  the  race. 

Ignored  though  it  be  by  the  feminist  leaders,  this 
is  the  first  of  questions;  and  in  so  far  as  any  clear 
opinion  on  it  is  emerging  from  the  welter  of  preju- 
dices, that  opinion  is  hitherto  inimical  to  the  feminist 
claims.  Most  notably  is  this  the  case  in  America, 
where  the  dysgenic  consequences  of  the  so-called 
higher  education  of  women  have  been  clearly  demon- 
strated. 

The  mark  of  the  following  pages  is  that  they  assume 
the  principle  of  what  we  may  call  Eugenic  Feminism, 
and  that  they  endeavour  to  formulate  its  working-out. 
It  is  my  business  to  acquaint  myself  with  the  literature 
of  both  eugenics  and  feminism,  and  I  know  that 
hitherto  the  eugenists  have  inclined  to  oppose  the 
claims  of  feminism,  Sir  Francis  Galton,  for  instance, 
having  lent  his  name  to  the  anti-suffrage  side;  whilst 
the  feminists,  one  and  all,  so  far  as  Anglo-Saxondom 


8  Woman  and  Womanhood 

is  concerned — for  Ellen  Key  must  be  excepted — are 
either  unaware  of  the  meaning  of  eugenics  at  all,  or 
are  up  in  arms  at  once  when  the  eugenist — or  at  any 
rate  this  eugenist,  who  is  a  male  person — mildly  in- 
quires: But  what  about  motherhood?  and  to  what 
sort  of  women  are  you  relegating  it  by  default? 

I  claim,  therefore,  that  there  is  immediate  need  for 
the  presentation  of  a  case  which  is,  from  first  to  last, 
and  at  whatever  cost,  eugenic;  but  which  also — or, 
rather,  therefore — makes  the  highest  claims  on  be- 
half of  woman  and  womanhood,  so  that  indeed,  in 
striving  to  demonstrate  the  vast  importance  of  the 
woman  question  for  the  composition  of  the  coming 
race,  I  may  claim  to  be  much  more  feminist  than  the 
feminists. 

The  problem  is  not  easily  to  be  solved;  otherwise 
we  should  not  have  paired  off  into  insane  parties,  as 
on  my  view  we  have  done.  Nor  will  the  solution 
please  the  feminists  without  reserve,  whilst  it  will 
grossly  offend  that  abnormal  section  of  the  feminists 
who  are  distinguished  by  being  so  much  less  than 
feminine,  and  who  little  realize  what  a  poor  substitute 
feminism  is  for  feminity. 

There  is  possible  no  Eugenic  Feminism  which  shall 
satisfy  those  whose  simple  argument  is  that  woman 
must  have  what  she  wants,  just  as  man  must.  I  do 
not  for  a  moment  admit  that  either  men  or  women  or 
children  of  a  smaller  growth  are  entitled  to  every- 
thing they  want.  *  T^e  divine  right  of  kings,"  said 
Carlyle,  "  is  the  right  to  be  kingly  men  ";  and  I  would 
add  that  the  divine  right  of  women  is  the  right  to  be 


First  Principles  9 

queenly  women.  Until  this  present  time,  it  was  never 
yet  alleged  as  a  final  principle  of  justice  that  whatever 
people  wanted  they  were  entitled  to,  yet  that  is  the 
simple  feminist  demand  in  a  very  large  number  of 
cases.  It  is  a  demand  to  be  denied,  whilst  at  the  same 
time  we  grant  the  right  of  every  man  and  of  every 
woman  to  opportunities  for  the  best  development  of 
the  self;  whatever  that  self  may  be — including  even 
the  aberrant  and  epicene  self  of  those  imperfectly 
constituted  women  whose  adherence  to  the  woman's 
cause  so  seriously  handicaps  it. 

But  it  is  one  thing  to  say  people  should  have  what 
is  best  for  them,  and  another  that  whatever  they  want 
is  best  for  them.  If  it  is  not  best  for  them  it  is  not 
right,  any  more  than  if  they  were  children  asking  for 
more  green  apples.  Women  have  great  needs  of 
which  they  are  at  present  unjustly  deprived;  and  they 
are  fully  entitled  to  ask  for  everything  which  is 
needed  for  the  satisfaction  of  those  needs;  but  noth- 
ing is  more  certain  than  that,  at  present,  many  of 
them  do  not  know  what  they  should  ask  for.  Not  to 
know  what  is  good  for  us  is  a  common  human  fail- 
ing; to  have  it  pointed  out  is  always  tiresome,  and  to 
have  this  pointed  out  to  women  by  any  man  is  intoler- 
able. But  the  question  is  not  whether  a  man  points  it 
out,  presuming  to  tell  women  what  is  good  for  them, 
but  whether  in  this  matter  he  is  right — in  common 
with  the  overwhelming  multitude  of  the  dead  of  both 
sexes. 

As  has  been  hinted,  the  issue  is  much  more  mo- 
mentous than  any  could  have  realized  even  so  late  as 


IO  Woman  and  Womanhood 

fifty  years  ago.  It  is  only  in  our  own  time  that  we  are 
learning  the  measure  of  the  natural  differences  be- 
tween individuals,  it  is  only  lately  that  we  have  come 
to  see  that  races  cannot  rise  by  the  transmission  of 
acquired  characters  from  parents  to  offspring,  since 
such  transmission  does  not  occur,  and  it  is  only  within 
the  last  few  years  that  the  relative  potency  of  heredity 
over  education,  of  nature  over  nurture,  has  been  dem- 
onstrated. Not  one  in  thousands  knows  how  cogent 
this  demonstration  is,  nor  how  absolutely  conclusive  is 
the  case  for  the  eugenic  principle  in  the  light  of  our 
modern  knowledge.  At  whatever  cost,  we  see,  who 
have  ascertained  the  facts,  that  we  must  be  eugenic. 

This  argument  was  set  forth  in  full  in  the  predeces- 
sors of  this  book,  which  in  its  turn  is  devoted  to  the 
interests  of  women  as  individuals.  But  before  we  pro- 
ceed, it  is  plainly  necessary  to  answer  the  critic  who 
might  urge  that  the  separate  questions  of  the  individual 
and  the  race  cannot  be  discussed  in  this  mixed  fashion. 
The  argument  may  be  that  if  we  are  to  discuss  the 
character  and  development  and  rights  of  women  as 
individuals,  we  must  stick  to  our  last.  Any  woman 
may  question  the  eugenic  criterion  or  say  that  it  has 
nothing  to  do  with  her  case.  She  claims  certain  rights 
and  has  certain  needs;  she  is  not  so  sure,  perhaps, 
about  the  facts  of  heredity,  and  in  any  case  she  is 
sure  that  individuals — such  as  herself,  for  instance — 
are  ends  in  themselves.  She  neither  desires  to  be  sac- 
rificed to  the  race,  nor  does  she  admit  that  any  in- 
dividual should  be  so  sacrificed.  She  is  tired  of  hear- 
ing that  women  must  make  sacrifices  for  the  sake  of 


First  Principles  1 1 

the  community  and  its  future;  and  the  statement  of 
this  proposition  in  its  new  eugenic  form,  which  asserts 
that,  at  all  costs,  the  finest  women  must  be  mothers, 
and  the  mothers  must  be  the  finest  women,  is  no  more 
satisfactory  to  her  than  the  crude  creed  of  the  Kaiser 
that  children,  cooking  and  church  are  the  proper  con- 
cerns of  women.  She  claims  to  be  an  individual,  as 
much  as  any  man  is,  as  much  as  any  individual  of 
either  sex  whom  we  hope  to  produce  in  the  future  by 
our  eugenics,  and  she  has  the  same  personal  claim  to 
be  an  end  in  and  for  herself  as  they  will  have  whom 
we  seek  to  create.  Her  sex  has  always  been  sacrificed 
to  the  present  or  to  the  immediate  needs  of  the  future 
as  represented  by  infancy  and  childhood;  and  there 
is  no  special  attractiveness  in  the  prospect  of  exchang- 
ing a  military  tyranny  for  a  eugenic  tyranny:  "  plus  ga 
change,  plus  c'est  la  meme  chose  " 

One  cannot  say  whether  this  will  be  accepted  as  a  fair 
statement  of  the  woman's  case  at  the  present  time,  but 
I  have  endeavoured  to  state  it  fairly  and  would  reply  to 
it  that  its  claims  are  unquestionable  and  that  we  must 
grant  unreservedly  the  equal  right  of  every  woman 
to  the  same  consideration  and  recognition  and  oppor- 
tunity as  an  individual,  an  end  in  and  for  herself, 
whatever  the  future  may  ask  for,  as  we  grant  to  men. 

But  I  seek  to  show  in  the  following  pages  that,  in 
reality,  there  is  no  antagonism  between  the  claims  of 
the  future  and  the  present,  the  race  and  the  indi- 
vidual. On  philosophic  analysis  we  must  see  that,  in- 
deed, no  living  race  could  come  into  being,  much  less 
endure,  in  which  the  interests  of  individuals  as  indU 


12  Woman  and  Womanhood 

viduals,  and  the  interest  of  the  race,  were  opposed.  If 
we  imagine  any  such  race  we  must  imagine  its  disap- 
pearance in  one  generation,  or  in  a  few  generations  if 
the  clash  of  interests  were  less  than  complete.  Living 
Nature  is  not  so  fiendishly  contrived  as  has  sometimes 
appeared  to  the  casual  eye.  On  the  contrary,  the 
natural  rule  which  we  see  illustrated  in  all  species, 
animal  or  vegetable,  high  or  low,  throughout  the 
living  world,  is  that  the  individual  is  so  constructed 
that  his  or  her  personal  fulfilment  of  his  or  her  natu- 
ral destiny  as  an  individual,  is  precisely  that  which 
best  serves  the  race.  Once  we  learn  that  individuals 
were  all  evolved  by  Nature  for  the  sake  of  the  race, 
we  shall  understand  why  they  have  been  so  evolved 
in  their  personal  characteristics  that  in  living  their 
own  lives  and  fulfilling  themselves  they  best  fulfil  Na- 
ture's remoter  purpose. 

To  this  universal  and  necessary  law,  without  which 
life  could  not  persist  anywhere  in  any  of  its  forms, 
woman  is  no  exception;  and  therein  is  the  reply  to  those 
who  fear  a  statement  in  new  terms  of  the  old  propo- 
sition that  women  must  give  themselves  up  for  the 
sake  of  the  community  and  its  future.  Here  it  is 
true  that  whosoever  will  give  her  life  shall  save  it. 
Women  must  indeed  give  themselves  up  for  the  com- 
munity and  the  future;  and  so  must  men.  Since 
women  differ  from  men,  their  sacrifice  takes  a  some- 
what different  form,  but  in  their  case,  as  in  men's,  the 
right  fulfilment  of  Nature's  purpose  is  one  with  the 
right  fulfilment  of  their  own  destiny.  There  is  no 
antinomy.  On  the  contrary,  the  following  pages  are 


First  Principles  13 

written  in  the  belief  and  the  fear  that  women  are 
threatening  to  injure  themselves  as  individuals — and 
therefore  the  race,  of  course — just  because  they 
wrongly  suppose  that  a  monstrous  antinomy  exists 
where  none  could  possibly  exist.  "  No,"  they  say,  "  we 
have  endured  this  too  long;  henceforth  we  must  be 
free  to  be  ourselves  and  live  our  own  lives.1'  And 
then,  forsooth,  they  proceed  to  try  to  be  other  than 
themselves  and  live  other  than  the  lives  for  which 
their  real  selves,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  were  con- 
structed. It  works  for  a  time,  and  even  for  life  in  the 
case  of  incomplete  and  aberrant  women.  For  the 
others,  it  often  spells  liberty  and  interest  and  height- 
ened consciousness  of  self  for  some  years;  but  the 
time  comes  when  outraged  Nature  exacts  her  ven- 
geance, when  middle  age  abbreviates  the  youth  that  was 
really  misspent,  and  is  itself  as  prematurely  followed 
by  a  period  of  decadence  grateful  neither  to  its  victim 
nor  to  anyone  else.  Meanwhile  the  women  who  have 
chosen  to  be  and  to  remain  women  realize  the  promise 
of  Wordsworth  to  the  girl  who  preferred  walks  in 
the  country  to  algebra  and  symbolic  logic: — 

Thou,  while  thy  babes  around  thee  cling, 

Shalt  show  us  how  divine  a  thing 

A  woman  may  be  made. 

Thy  thoughts  and  feelings  shall  not  die, 

Nor  leave  thee,  when  grey  hairs  are  nigh, 

A  melancholy  slave; 

But  an  old  age  serene  and  bright 

And  lovely  as  a  Lapland  night, 

Shall  lead  thee  to  thv  grave. 


14  Woman  and  Womanhood 

Where  is  the  woman,  recognizable  as  such,  who 
will  question  that  the  brother  of  Dorothy  Wordsworth 
was  right? 

In  the  following  pages,  it  is  sought  to  show  that, 
women  being  constructed  by  Nature,  as  individuals, 
for  her  racial  ends,  they  best  realize  themselves,  are 
happier  and  more  beautiful,  live  longer  and  more  use- 
ful lives,  when  they  follow,  as  mothers  or  foster-moth- 
ers in  the  wide  and  scarcely  metaphorical  sense  of  that 
word,  the  career  suggested  in  Wordsworth's  lovely 
lines. 

It  remains  to  state  the  most  valuable  end  which  this 
book  might  possibly  achieve — an  end  which,  by  one 
means  or  another,  must  be  achieved.  It  is  that  the 
best  women,  those  favoured  by  Nature  in  physique 
and  intelligence,  in  character  and  their  emotional  na- 
ture, the  women  who  are  increasingly  to  be  found  en- 
listed in  the  ranks  of  Feminism,  and  fighting  the  great 
fight  for  the  Women's  Cause,  shall  be  convinced  by 
the  unchangeable  and  beneficent  facts  of  biology,  seen 
in  the  bodies  and  minds  of  women,  and  shall  direct 
their  efforts  accordingly;  so  that  they  and  those  of 
their  sisters  who  are  of  the  same  natural  rank,  instead 
of  increasingly  deserting  the  ranks  of  motherhood  and 
leaving  the  blood  of  inferior  women  to  constitute  half 
of  all  future  generations,  shall  on  the  contrary  furnish 
an  ever-increasing  proportion  of  our  wives  and  moth- 
ers, to  the  great  gain  of  themselves,  and  of  men,  and 
of  the  future. 

For  in  some  of  its  forms  to-day  the  Woman's  Cause 
is  not  man's,  nor  the  future's,  nor  even,  as  I  shall  try 


First  Principles  15 

to  show,  woman's.  But  a  Eugenic  Feminism,  for 
which  I  try  to  show  the  warrant  in  the  study  of  wo- 
man's nature,  would  indeed  be  the  cause  of  man,  and 
should  enlist  the  whole  heart  and  head  of  every  man 
who  has  them  to  offer.  For  here  is  a  principle  which 
benefits  men  to  the  whole  immeasurable  extent  in- 
volved in  decreeing  that  the  best  women  must  be  the 
wives.  '  The  best  women  for  our  wives!  "  is  not  a 
bad  demand  from  men's  point  of  view,  and  it  is  as- 
suredly the  best  possible  for  the  sake  of  the  future. 

It  is  claimed,  then,  for  the  teaching  of  this  book 
that,  being  based  upon  the  evident  and  unquestionable 
indications  of  Nature,  it  is  calculated  to  serve  her  end, 
which  is  the  welfare  of  the  race  as  a  whole,  including 
both  sexes.  No  one  will  question  that  the  position  and 
happiness  and  self-realization  of  women  in  the  mod- 
ern world  would  be  vastly  enhanced  by  the  reforms 
for  which  I  plead,  though  some  men  will  not  think  that 
game  worth  the  candle.  But  I  have  argued  that  men 
also  will  profit;  nor  can  there  be  any  question  as  to 
the  advantage  for  children.  It  is  just  because  our 
scheme  and  our  objects  are  natural  that  they  require 
no  support  from  and  lend  no  warrant  to  that  accursed 
spirit  of  sex-antagonism  which  many  well-meaning 
women  now  display — doubtless  by  a  natural  reflex, 
because  it  is  the  spirit  of  the  worst  men  everywhere. 
It  is  primarily  men's  desire  for  sex-dominance  that 
engenders  a  sex-resentment  in  women;  but  the  spirit 
is  lamentable,  whatever  its  origin  and  wherever  it  be 
found.  It  is  most  lamentable  in  the  bully,  the  drunk- 
ard, the  cad,  the  Mammonist,  the  satyr,  who  are  every- 


16  Woman  and  Womanhood 

where  to  be  found  opposing  woman  and  her  claims. 
There  is  no  variety  of  male  blackguardism  and  bes- 
tiality, of  vileness  and  selfishness,  of  lust  and  greed, 
whose  representatives'  names  should  not  be  added  to 
those  of  the  illustrious  pro-consuls  and  elegant  peer- 
esses and  their  following  who  form  Anti-Suffrage  So- 
cieties. Before  we  criticise  sex-antagonism  in  women, 
let  us  be  honest  about  it  in  men;  and  before  we  sneer 
at  the  type  of  women  who  most  display  it,  let  us  real- 
ize fully  the  worthlessness  of  the  types  of  men  who 
display  it.  But  if  this  be  granted — and  I  have  never 
heard  it  granted  by  the  men  who  deplore  sex-antago- 
nism as  if  only  women  displayed  it — we  must  none 
the  less  recognize  that  this  spirit  injures  both  sexes, 
and  that  it  is  necessarily  false,  since  none  can  question 
that  Nature  devised  the  sexes  for  mutual  aid  to  her 
end.  By  this  first  principle  sex-antagonism  is  there- 
fore condemned.  This  book,  written  by  a  man  in 
behalf  of  womanhood — and  therefore  in  behalf  of 
manhood  and  childhood — is  consistently  opposed  to  all 
notions  of  sex-antagonism,  or  sex-dominance,  male  or 
female,  or  of  competing  claims  between  the  sexes. 
Man  and  woman  are  complementary  halves  of  the 
highest  thing  we  know,  and  just  as  the  men  who  seek 
to  maintain  male  dominance  are  the  enemies  of  man- 
kind, so  the  women  who  preach  enmity  to  men,  and 
refusal  of  wise  and  humane  legislation  in  their  inter- 
ests because  men  have  framed  it,  are  the  enemies  of 
womankind.  At  the  beginning  of  the  "  Suffragette  " 
movement  in  England,  I  had  the  pleasure  of  taking 
luncheon  with  the  brilliant  young  lady  whose  name 


First  Principles  17 

has  been  so  prominent  in  this  connection ;  and  my  life- 
long enthusiasm  for  the  "  Vote  "  has  been  chastened 
ever  since  by  the  recollection  of  the  resentment  which 
she  exhibited  at  every  suggestion  of  or  allusion  to  any 
legislation  in  favour  of  women — notably  with  refer- 
ence to  infant  mortality  and  to  alcoholism — whilst 
the  suffrage  was  withheld.  Substitute  "  destroyed  "  or 
"  reversed  "  for  "  chastened,"  and  you  have  a  more 
typical  result  in  quite  well-meaning  men  of  sex-antago- 
nism as  many  **  advanced  "  women  now  display  it. 

Further,  this  book  may  be  regarded  as  an  appeal 
to  those  women  who  are  responsible  for  forming  the 
ideals  of  girls.  The  idea  of  womanhood  here  set 
forth  on  natural  grounds  is  not  always  represented 
in  the  ideals  which  are  now  set  before  the  youthful 
aspirant  for  work  in  the  woman's  cause.  It  is  not 
argued  that  the  principles  of  eugenics  are  to  be  ex- 
pounded to  the  beginner,  nor  that  she  is  to  be  re-di- 
rected to  the  nursery.  It  is  not  necessarily  argued,  by 
any  means,  that  marriage  and  motherhood  are  to  be 
set  forth  as  the  goal  at  which  every  girl  is  to  aim; 
such  a  woman  as  Miss  Florence  Nightingale  was  a 
Foster-Mother  of  countless  thousands,  and  was  only 
the  greatest  exemplar  in  our  time  of  a  function  which 
is  essentially  womanly,  but  does  not  involve  marriage. 
I  desire  nothing  less  than  that  girls  should  be  taught 
that  they  must  marry — any  man  better  than  none.  I 
want  no  more  men  chosen  for  fatherhood  than  are 
fit  for  it,  and  if  the  standard  is  to  be  raised,  selection 
must  be  more  rigorous  and  exclusive,  as  it  could  not 
be  if  every  girl  were  taught  that,  unmarried,  she  fails 


1 8  Woman  and  Womanhood 

of  her  destiny.  The  higher  the  standard  which,  on 
eugenic  principles,  natural  or  acquired,  women  exact 
of  the  men  they  marry,  the  more  certainly  will  many 
women  remain  unmarried. 

But  I  believe  that  the  principles  here  set  forth  are 
able  to  show  us  how  such  women  may  remain  femi- 
nine, and  may  discharge  characteristically  feminine 
functions  in  society,  even  though  physical  motherhood 
be  denied  them.  The  racial  importance  of  physical 
motherhood  cannot  be  exaggerated,  because  it  deter- 
mines, as  we  have  seen,  not  less  than  half  the  natural 
composition  of  future  generations.  But  its  individual 
importance  can  easily  be  over-estimated,  and  that  is 
an  error  which  I  have  specially  sought  to  avoid  in  this 
book,  which  is  certainly  an  attempt  to  call  or  recall 
women  to  motherhood.  It  is  not  as  if  physical  moth- 
erhood were  the  whole  of  human  motherhood.  Ra- 
cially, it  is  the  substantial  whole;  individually,  it  is  but 
a  part  of  the  whole,  and  a  smaller  fraction  in  our  spe- 
cies than  in  any  humbler  form  of  life.  Everyone 
knows  maiden  aunts  who  are  better,  more  valuable, 
completer  mothers  in  every  non-physical  way  than  the 
actual  mothers  of  their  nephews  and  nieces.  This  is 
woman's  wonderful  prerogative,  that,  in  virtue  of  her 
psyche,  she  can  realize  herself,  and  serve  others,  on 
feminine  lines,  and  without  a  pang  of  regret  or  a  hint 
anywhere  of  failure,  even  though  she  forego  physical 
motherhood.  This  book,  therefore,  is  a  plea  not  only 
for  Motherhood  but  for  Foster-Motherhood — that  is, 
Motherhood  all-but-physical.  In  time  to  come  the 
great  professions  of  nursing  and  teaching  will  more 


First  Principles  19 

and  more  engage  and  satisfy  the  lives  and  the  powers 
of  Virgin- Mothers  without  number.  Let  no  woman 
prove  herself  so  ignorant  or  contemptuous  of  great 
things  as  to  suggest  that  these  are  functions  beneath 
the  dignity  of  her  complete  womanhood. 

But  many  a  young  girl,  passing  from  her  finishing- 
school — which  has  perhaps  not  quite  succeeded,  de- 
spite its  best  efforts,  in  finishing  her  womanhood — and 
coming  under  the  influence  of  some  of  our  modern 
champions  of  womanhood,  might  well  be  excused  for 
throwing  such  a  book  as  this  from  her,  scorning  to  ad- 
mit the  glorious  conditions  which  declare  that  woman 
is  more  for  the  Future  than  for  the  Present,  and  that 
if  the  Future  is  to  be  safeguarded,  or  even  to  be,  they 
must  not  be  transgressed.  I  have  watched  young 
girls,  wearing  the  beautiful  colours  which  have  been 
captured  by  one  section  of  the  suffrage  movement, 
asking  their  way  to  headquarters  for  instructions  as 
to  procedure,  and  I  have  wondered  whether,  in  twenty 
years,  they  will  look  back  wholly  with  content  at 
the  consequences.  Some  time  ago  the  illustrated  pa- 
pers provided  us  with  photographs  of  a  person,  origi- 
nally female,  "  born  to  be  love  visible,"  as  Ruskin 
says,  who  had  mastered  jiu-jitsu  for  suffragette  pur- 
poses, and  was  to  be  seen  throwing  various  hapless 
men  about  a  room.  And  only  the  day  before  I  write, 
the  papers  have  given  us  a  realistic  account  of  a 
demonstration  by  an  ardent  advocate  of  woman,  the 
chief  item  of  which  was  that,  on  the  approach  of  a 
burly  policeman  to  seize  her,  she — if  the  pronouns  be 
not  too  definite  in  their  sex — fell  upon  her  back  and 


2O  Woman  and  Womanhood 

adroitly  received  the  constabulary  "  wind  "  upon  her 
upraised  foot,  thereby  working  much  havoc.  No  one 
would  assert  that  the  woman's  movement  is  respon- 
sible for  the  production  of  such  people ;  no  reasonable 
person  would  assert  that  their  adherence  condemns  it; 
but  we  are  rightly  entitled  to  be  concerned  lest  the 
rising  generation  of  womanhood  be  misled  by  such  dis- 
gusting examples. 

Nothing  will  be  said  which  militates  for  a  moment 
against  the  possibility  that  a  woman  may  be  womanly 
and  yet  in  her  later  years,  when  so  many  women  com- 
bine their  best  health  and  vigour  with  experience  and 
wisdom,  might  replace  many  hundredweight  of  male 
legislators  upon  the  benches  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, to  the  immense  advantage  of  the  nation.  If  our 
present  purpose  were  medical  in  the  ordinary  sense, 
the  reader  would  come  to  a  chapter  on  the  climacteric, 
dealing  with  the  nervous  and  other  risks  and  disabil- 
ities of  that  period,  and  notably  including  a  warning 
as  to  the  importance  of  attending  promptly  to  certain 
local  symptoms  which  may  possibly  herald  grave  dis- 
ease. An  abundance  of  books  on  such  subjects  is  to 
be  had,  and  my  purpose  is  not  to  add  to  their  number. 
Yet  the  climacteric  has  a  special  interest  for  us  be- 
cause the  special  case  of  those  women  who  have  passed 
it  is  constantly  ignored  in  our  discussions  of  the  woman 
question — which  is  not  exclusively  concerned  with  the 
destiny  of  girls  and  the  claims  of  feminine  adolescence 
to  the  vote.  The  work  of  Lord  Lister,  and  the  ad- 
vances of  obstetrics  and  gynecology,  largely  depend- 
ent thereon,  are  increasing  the  naturally  large  number 


First  Principles  21 

of  women  at  these  later  ages — naturally  large  because 
women  live  longer  than  men.  At  this  stage  the  whole 
case  is  changed.  The  eugenic  criterion  no  longer  ap- 
plies. But  though  the  woman  is  past  motherhood,  she 
is  still  a  woman,  and  by  no  means  past  foster-mother- 
hood. Though  her  psychological  characters  are  some- 
what modified,  it  is  recorded  by  my  old  friend  and 
teacher,  Dr.  Clouston,  that  never  yet  has  he  found  the 
climacteric  to  damage  a  woman's  natural  love  for 
children:  the  maternal  instinct  will  not  be  destroyed. 
See,  then,  what  a  valuable  being  we  have  here;  none 
the  less  so  because,  as  has  been  said,  she  now  begins 
to  enjoy,  in  many  cases,  the  best  health  of  her  life. 
Whatever  activities  she  adopts,  there  is  now  no  ques- 
tion of  depriving  the  race  of  her  qualities:  if  they 
are  good  qualities,  it  is  to  be  hoped  they  are  already 
represented  in  members  of  the  rising  generation.  The 
scope  of  womanhood  is  now  extended.  The  prin- 
ciples to  be  laid  down  later  still  apply,  but  they  are  en- 
tirely compatible  with,  for  instance,  the  discharge  of 
legislative  functions.  The  nation  does  not  yet  value 
its  old  or  elderly  women  aright.  We  use  as  a  term  of 
contempt  that  which  should  be  a  term  of  respect.  Sav- 
age peoples  are  wiser.  We  need  the  wisdom  of  our 
older  women.  It  would  be  well  for  us  to  have  Mrs. 
Fawcett  and  Mrs.  Humphry  Ward  in  Parliament. 
The  distinguished  lady  who  approves  of  woman's 
vote  in  municipal  affairs,  and  fights  hard  for  her  son's 
candidature  in  Parliament,  but  objects  to  woman  suf- 
frage on  the  ground  that  women  should  not  interfere 
in  politics,  could  doubtless  find  a  good  reason  why 


22  Woman  and  Womanhood 

women  should  sit  in  Parliament;  and  though  she  would 
scarcely  be  heeded  on  matters  of  political  theory,  her 
splendid  championship  of  Vacation  Schools  and  Play 
Centres  would  be  more  effective  than  ever  in  the 
House,  and  might  instruct  some  of  her  male  confreres 
as  to  what  politics  really  is. 

The  prefatory  point  here  made  is,  in  a  word,  that 
the  following  doctrines  are  perhaps  less  reactionary 
than  the  ardent  suffragette  might  suppose,  compatible 
as  they  are  with  an  earnest  belief  in  the  fitness  and  the 
urgent  desirability  of  women  of  later  ages  even  as 
Members  of  Parliament.  It  may  be  added  that,  on 
this  very  point,  there  is  a  ridiculous  argument  against 
woman  suffrage — that  it  is  the  precursor  of  a  demand 
to  enter  Parliament,  which  would  mean  (it  is  as- 
sumed), women  being  numerically  in  the  majority,  that 
the  House  would  be  filled  with  girls  of  twenty-two 
and  three.  Men  of  a  sort  would  be  likelier  than 
women,  it  could  be  argued,  to  vote  for  such  girls;  but 
the  wise  of  both  sexes  might  well  vote  for  the  elderly 
women  whose  existence  is  somehow  forgotten  in  this 
connection. 

No  chapter  will  be  found  devoted  to  the  question 
of  the  vote.  The  omission  is  not  due  to  reasons  of 
space,  nor  to  my  ever  having  heard  a  good  argu- 
ment against  the  vote — even  the  argument  that  women 
do  not  want  it.  That  women  did  not  want  the  vote 
would  only  show — if  it  were  the  case — how  much  they 
needed  it.  Nor  is  the  omission  due  to  any  lukewarm- 
ness  in  a  cause  for  which  I  am  constantly  speaking  and 
writing.  My  faith  in  the  justice  and  political  expe- 


First  Principles  23 

diency  of  woman  suffrage  has  survived  the  worst  fol- 
lies, in  speech  and  deed,  of  its  injudicious  advocates: 
I  would  as  soon  allow  the  vagaries  of  Mrs.  Carrie 
Nation  to  make  me  an  advocate  of  free  whiskey. 
Causes  must  be  judged  by  their  merits,  not  by  their 
worst  advocates,  or  where  are  the  chances  of  religion 
or  patriotism  or  decency? 

The  omission  is  due  to  the  belief  that  votes  for 
women  or  anybody  else  are  far  less  important  than 
their  advocates  or  their  opponents  assume.  The  biol- 
ogist cannot  escape  the  habit  of  thinking  of  political 
matters  in  vital  terms;  and  if  these  lead  him  to  regard 
such  questions  as  the  vote  with  an  interest  which  is 
only  secondary  and  conditional,  it  is  by  no  means  cer- 
tain that  the  verdict  of  history  would  not  justify  him. 
The  present  concentration  of  feminism  in  England 
upon  the  vote,  sometimes  involving  the  refusal  of  a 
good  end — such  as  wise  legislation — because  it  was 
not  attained  by  the  means  they  desire,  and  arousing 
all  manner  of  enmity  between  the  sexes,  may  be  an 
unhappy  necessity  so  long  as  men  refuse  to  grant  what 
they  will  assuredly  grant  before  long.  But  now,  and 
then,  the  vital  matters  are  the  nature  of  womanhood; 
the  extent  of  our  compliance  with  Nature's  laws  in  the 
care  of  girlhood,  whether  or  not  women  share  in 
making  the  transitory  laws  of  man;  and  the  extent  to 
which  womanhood  discharges  its  great  functions  of 
dedicating  and  preparing  its  best  for  the  mothers,  and 
choosing  and  preparing  the  best  of  men  for  the  fa- 
thers, of  the  future.  The  vote,  or  any  other  thing,  is 
good  or  bad  in  so  far  as  it  serves  or  hurts  these  great 


24  Woman  and  Womanhood 

and  everlasting  needs.  I  believe  in  the  vote  because 
I  believe  it  will  be  eugenic,  will  reform  the  conditions 
of  marriage  and  divorce  in  the  eugenic  sense,  and  will 
serve  the  cause  of  what  I  have  elsewhere  called  "  pre- 
ventive eugenics,"  which  strives  to  protect  healthy 
stocks  from  the  "  racial  poisons,"  such  as  venereal  dis- 
ease, alcohol,  and,  in  a  relatively  infinitesimal  degree, 
lead.  These  are  ends  good  and  necessary  in  them- 
selves, whether  attained  by  a  special  dispensation  from 
on  high,  or  by  decree  of  an  earthly  autocrat  or  a  de- 
mocracy of  either  sex  or  both.  For  these  ends  we 
must  work,  and  for  all  the  means  whereby  to  attain 
them;  but  never  for  the  means  in  despite  of  the  ends. 
This  first  chapter  is  perhaps  unduly  long,  but  it  is 
necessary  to  state  my  eugenic  faith,  since  there  is 
neither  room  nor  need  for  me  to  reiterate  the  prin- 
ciples of  eugenics  in  later  chapters,  and  since  it  was 
necessary  to  show  that,  though  this  book  is  written  in 
the  interests  of  individual  womanhood,  it  is  consistent 
with  the  principles  of  the  divine  cause  of  race-culture, 
to  which,  for  me,  all  others  are  subordinate,  and  by 
which,  I  know,  all  others  will  in  the  last  resort  be 
judged. 

The  whole  teaching  of  this  book,  from  social  gene- 
ralizations to  the  details  of  the  wise  management  of 
girlhood,  is  based  upon  a  single  and  simple  principle, 
often  referred  to  and  always  assumed  in  former 
writings  from  this  pen,  and  in  public  speaking  from 
many  and  various  platforms.  If  this  principle  be 
invalid,  the  whole  of  the  practice  which  is  sought  to 


First  Principles  25 

be  based  upon  it  falls  to  the  ground;  but  if  it  be  valid, 
it  is  of  supreme  importance  as  the  sole  foundation 
upon  which  can  be  erected  any  structure  of  truth 
regarding  woman  and  womanhood.  Our  first  con- 
cern, therefore,  must  be  to  state  this  principle,  and 
the  evidence  therefor.  This  will  occupy  not  a  small 
space :  and  the  remainder  will  be  amply  filled  with 
the  details  of  its  application  to  woman  as  girl  and 
mother  and  grandmother,  as  wife  and  widow,  as  in- 
dividual and  citizen. 

Woman  is  Nature's  supreme  organ  of  the  future, 
and  it  is  as  such  that  she  will  here  be  regarded.  The 
purpose  of  adding  yet  another  to  the  many  books  on 
various  aspects  of  womanhood  is  to  propound  and,  if 
possible,  establish  this  conception  of  womanhood,  and 
to  find  in  it  a  never-failing  guide  to  the  right  living  of 
the  individual  life,  an  infallible  criterion  of  right  and 
wrong  in  all  proposals  for  the  future  of  womanhood, 
whether  economic,  political,  educational,  whether  re- 
garding marriage  or  divorce,  or  any  other  subject 
that  concerns  womanhood.  A  principle  for  which  so 
much  is  claimed  demands  clear  definition  and  inex- 
pugnable foundation  in  the  "  solid  ground  of  Nature." 
Cogent  in  some  measure  though  the  argument  would 
be,  we  must  appeal  in  the  first  place  neither  to  the 
poets,  nor  to  our  own  naturally  implanted  preferences 
in  womanhood,  nor  to  any  teaching  that  claims  extra- 
natural  authority.  Our  first  question  must  be — Do 
Nature  and  Life,  the  facts  and  laws  of  the  continuance 
and  maintenance  of  living  creatures,  lend  countenance 
to  this  idea;  can  it  be  translated  from  general  terms, 


26  Woman  and  Womanhood 

essentially  poetic  and  therefore  suspect  by  many,  into 
precise,  hard,  scientific  language;  is  it  a  fact,  like  the 
atomic  weight  of  oxygen  or  the  laws  of  motion,  that 
woman  is  Nature's  supreme  instrument  of  the  fu- 
ture? If  the  answer  to  these  questions  be  affirmative, 
the  evidence  of  the  poets,  of  our  own  preferences,  of 
religions  ancient  and  modern,  is  of  merely  secondary 
concern  as  corroborative,  and  as  serving  curiosity  to 
observe  how  far  the  teachings  of  passionless  science 
have  been  divined  or  denied  by  past  ages  and  by 
other  modes  of  perception  and  inquiry.  Therefore 
this  is  to  be  in  its  basis  none  other  than  a  biological 
treatise;  for  the  laws  of  reproduction,  the  newly 
gained  knowledge  regarding  the  nature  of  sex,  and  the 
facts  of  physiology,  afford  the  evidence  of  the  essen- 
tially biological  truth  which  has  been  so  often  ex- 
pressed by  the  present  writer  in  the  quasi-poetic  terms 
already  set  forth.  Let  us,  then,  first  remind  ourselves 
how  the  individual,  whether  male  or  female,  is  to  be 
looked  upon  in  the  light  of  the  work  of  Weismann  in 
especial,  and  how  this  great  truth,  discovered  by 
modern  biology  and  especially  by  the  students  of 
heredity,  affects  our  understanding  of  the  difference 
between  man  and  woman.  Setting  forth  these  earlier 
pages  in  the  year  of  the  Darwin  centenary,  and  the 
jubilee  of  the  "  Origin  of  Species,"  a  writer  would 
have  some  courage  who  proposed  to  discuss  man  and 
woman  as  if  they  were  unique,  rather  than  the  highest 
and  latest  examples  of  male  and  female :  their  nature 
to  be  rightly  understood  only  by  due  study  of  their 
ancestral  forms,  ancient  and  modern.  The  biological 


First  Principles  27 

problem  of  sex  is  our  concern,  and  we  may  have  to 
traverse  many  past  ages  of  "  aeonian  evolution,"  and 
even  to  consider  certain  quite  humble  organisms,  be- 
fore we  rightly  see  woman  as  an  evolutionary  pro- 
duct of  the  laws  of  life. 

But,  first,  as  to  the  individual,  of  whatever  sex. 
Observing  the  familiar  facts  of  our  own  lives  and  of 
the  higher  forms  of  life,  both  animal  and  vegetable, 
with  which  we  are  acquainted,  we  must  naturally  at 
first  incline  to  regard  as  worse  than  paradoxical  the 
modern  biological  concept  of  the  individual  as  existing 
for  the  race,  of  the  body  as  merely  a  transient  host  or 
trustee  of  the  immortal  germ-plasm.  Since  life  has 
its  worth  and  value  only  in  individuals,  and  since, 
therefore,  the  race  exists  for  the  production  of  indi- 
viduals, in  any  sense  that  we  human  beings,  at  any 
rate,  can  accept,  we  must  be  reasonable  in  expressing 
the  apparently  contrary  but  not  less  true  view  that  the 
individual  exists  for  the  race.  After  all,  that  does  not 
mean  that  individuals  exist  and  are  worth  Nature's 
while  merely  in  order  to  see  the  germ-plasm  on  its 
way.  To  say  that  the  individual  exists  for  the  race  is 
to  say  that  he,  and,  as  we  shall  see,  pre-eminently  she, 
exist  for  future  individuals;  and  that  is  not  a  destiny 
to  be  despised  of  any.  Let  us  attempt  to  state  simply 
but  accurately  what  biologists  mean  in  regarding  the 
individual  as  primarily  the  host  and  servant  of  some- 
thing called  the  germ-plasm. 

When  the  processes  of  development  and  of  repro- 
duction are  closely  scrutinized,  we  find  evidence  which, 
together  with  the  conclusions  based  thereon,  was  first 


28  Woman  and  Womanhood 

effectively  stated  by  August  Weismann,  of  Freiburg, 
in  his  famous  little  book,  "  The  Germ-Plasm."  *  The 
marvellous  cells  from  which  new  individuals  are 
formed  must  no  longer  be  regarded,  at  any  rate  in  the 
higher  animals  and  plants,  as  formerly  parts  of  the 
parent  individuals.  On  the  contrary,  we  have  to  ac- 
cept, at  least  in  general  and  as  substantially  revealing 
to  us  the  true  nature  of  the  individual,  the  doctrine  of 
the  "  continuity  of  the  germ-plasm,"  which  teaches  that 
the  race  proper  is  a  potentially  immortal  sequence  of 
living  germ-cells,  from  which  at  intervals  there  are  de- 
veloped bodies  or  individuals,  the  business  and  raison 
d'etre  of  which,  whatever  such  individuals  as  ourselves 
may  come  to  suppose,  is  primarily  to  provide  a  shelter 
for  the  germ-plasm,  and  nourishment  and  air,  until 
such  time  as  it  shall  produce  another  individual  for 
itself,  to  serve  the  same  function.  This  is  another  way 
of  saying  what  will  often  be  said  in  the  following 
pages — that  the  individual  is  meant  by  Nature  to  be 
a  parent. 

We  shall  later  see  that  this  great  truth  by  no  means 
involves  the  condemnation  of  spinsterhood,  but  since 
it  determines  not  only  the  physiology,  but  also  the 
psychology,  of  the  individual,  and  especially  of  woman, 
it  will  guide  us  to  a  right  appreciation  of  the  dan- 
gers and  the  right  direction  of  spinsterhood,  and  the 
means  whereby  it  may  be  made  a  blessing  to  self  and 
to  others.  This  must  be  said  lest  the  reader  should 
be  deterred  by  the  unquestionably  true  assertion  that 
*"The  Germ- Plasm."  English  translation  in  Contemporary 
Science  Series,  London:  New  York. 


First  Principles  2Q 

the  individual  is  meant  by  Nature  to  be  a  parent,  and 
has  no  excuse  for  existence  in  Nature's  eyes  except 
as  a  parent.  If  we  are  to  regard  the  body  as  a 
trustee  of  the  germ-plasm,  it  is  evident  that  the  body 
which  carries  the  germ-plasm  with  itself  to  the  grave 
— the  "  immortality  of  the  germ-plasm  "  being  only 
conditional  and  at  the  mercy  of  the  acts  of  individuals 
- — has  stultified  Nature's  end;  and  it  will  be  a  serious 
concern  of  ours  in  the  present  work  to  show  how, 
amongst  human  beings,  at  any  rate,  this  stultification 
may  be  averted,  many  childless  persons  of  both  sexes 
having  served  the  race  for  evermore  in  the  highest 
degree.  We  must  ask  in  what  directions  especially 
may  woman,  most  profitably  for  herself  or  for  others, 
seek  to  express  herself  apart  from  motherhood.  It 
will  appear,  if  our  leading  principle  be  valid,  that  it 
affords  us  a  sure  guide  in  the  welter  of  controversy 
and  baseless  assertion  of  every  kind,  in  which  this 
vastly  important  question  is  at  present  involved. 

This  conception  of  the  individual  as  something 
meant  to  be  a  parent  will  not  be  questioned  by  any- 
one who  will  do  himself  or  herself  the  justice  to  look 
at  it  soberly  and  reverently,  without  a  trace  of  that 
tendency  to  levity  or  to  something  worse  which  here 
invariably  betrays  the  vulgar  mind,  whether  in  a  prin- 
cess or  a  prostitute.  For  it  needs  little  reflection  to 
perceive  that  the  most  familiar  facts  of  our  experience 
and  observation  never  fail  to  confirm  the  doctrine 
based  by  Weismann  upon  the  revelations  of  the  micro- 
scope when  applied  to  the  developmental  processes  of 
certain  simple  animal  and  vegetable  forms.  The  doc- 


30  Woman  and  Womanhood 

trine  that  the  individual  body  was  evolved  by  the 
forces  of  life,  acted  on  and  directed  by  natural  selec- 
tion, as  guardian  and  transmitter  of  the  germ-plasm, 
assumes  a  less  paradoxical  character  when  we  perceive 
with  what  unfailing  art  Nature  has  constructed  and 
devised  the  body  and  the  mind  for  their  function. 
We  flatter  ourselves  hugely  if  we  suppose  that  even 
our  most  enjoyable  and  apparently  most  personal  at- 
tributes and  appetites  were  designed  by  Nature  for 
us.  Not  at  all.  It  is  the  race  for  which  she  is  con- 
cerned. It  is  not  the  individual  as  individual,  but  the 
individual  as  potential  parent,  that  is  her  concern,  nor 
does  she  hesitate  to  leave  very  much  to  the  mercy  of 
time  and  chance  the  individual  from  whom  the  pos- 
sibility of  parenthood  has  passed  away,  or  the  indi- 
vidual in  whom  it  has  never  appeared.  Our  appe- 
tites for  food  and  drink,  well  devised  by  Nature  to 
be  pleasant  in  their  satisfaction — lest  otherwise  we 
should  fail  to  satisfy  them  and  a  possible  parent 
should  be  lost  to  her  purposes — are  immediately  ren- 
dered of  no  account  when  there  stirs  within  us, 
whether  in  its  crude  or  transmuted  forms,  the  appe- 
tite for  the  exercise  of  which  these  others,  and  we  our- 
selves, exist,  since  in  Nature's  eyes  and  scheme  we  are 
but  vessels  of  the  future.  In  later  chapters  we  shall 
have  much  occasion,  because  of  their  great  practical 
importance  in  the  conduct  of  woman's  life  from  girl- 
hood onwards,  to  discuss  the  physiological  and  psy- 
chological facts  which  demonstrate  overwhelmingly 
the  truth  of  the  view  that  the  individual  was  evolved 
by  Nature  for  the  care  of  the  germ-plasm,  or,  in  other 


First  Principles  31 

words,    was    and    is    constructed   primarily   and   ulti- 
mately for  parenthood. 

Nor  is  this  argument,  as  I  see  it  and  will  present  it, 
invalidated  in  any  degree  by  the  case  of  such  indi- 
viduals as  the  sterile  worker-bee;  any  more  than  the 
argument,  rightly  considered,  is  invalidated  by  any 
instance  of  a  worthy,  valuable,  happy  life,  eminently 
a  success  in  the  highest  and  in  the  lower  senses,  lived 
amongst  mankind  by  a  non-parent  of  either  sex.  On 
the  contrary,  it  is  in  such  cases  as  that  of  the  worker- 
bee  that  we  find  the  warrant — in  apparent  contradic- 
tion— for  our  notion  of  the  meaning  of  the  individual, 
and  also  the  key  to  the  problem  placed  before  us 
amongst  ourselves  by  the  case  of  inevitable  spinster- 
hood.  Here,  it  must  be  granted,  is  an  individual  of 
a  very  high  and  definite  and  individually  complete 
type,  no  accident  or  sport,  but,  in  fact,  essential  for 
the  type  and  continuance  of  the  species  to  which  she 
belongs,  and  yet,  though  highly  individualized  and 
worthy  to  represent  individuality  at  its  best  and 
highest,  the  worker-bee,  so  far  from  being  designed 
for  parenthood,  is  sterile,  and  her  distinctive  char- 
acters and  utilities  are  conditional  upon  her  sterility. 
But  when  we  come  to  ask  what  are  her  distinctive 
characters  and  utilities  we  find  that  they  are  all  de- 
signed for  the  future  of  the  race.  She  is,  in  fact,  the 
ideal  foster-mother,  made  for  that  service,  complete  in 
her  incompleteness,  satisfied  with  the  vicarious  fulfil- 
ment of  the  whole  of  motherhood  except  its  merely 
physical  part.  The  doctrine,  therefore,  that  the  indi- 
vidual is  designed  by  Nature  for  parenthood,  the  in- 


32  Woman  and  Womanhood 

dividual  being  primarily  devised  for  the  race,  finds 
no  exception,  but  rather  a  striking  and  immensely 
significant  illustration  in  the  case  of  the  worker-bee, 
nor  will  it  find  itself  in  difficulties  with  the  case  of 
any  forms  of  individual,  however  sterile,  that  can  be 
quoted  from  either  the  animal  or  the  vegetable  world. 
Natural  selection,  of  which  the  continuance  of  the 
race  is  the  first  and  never  neglected  concern,  invari- 
ably sees  to  it  that  no  individuals  are  allowed  to  be 
produced  by  any  species  unless  they  have  survival- 
value,  a  phrase  which  always  means,  in  the  upshot, 
value  for  the  survival  of  the  race — whether  as  par- 
ents, or  foster-parents,  protectors  of  the  parents, 
feeders  or  slaves  thereof.  Our  primary  purpose 
throughout  being  practical,  it  is  impossible  to  devote 
unlimited  time  and  space  to  proceeding  formally 
through  the  known  forms  of  life  in  order  to  marshal 
all  the  proofs  or  a  tithe  of  them,  that  all  individuals 
are  invented  and  tolerated  by  Nature  for  parenthood 
or  its  service. 

We  shall  in  due  course  consider  the  peculiar  sig- 
nificance of  this  proposition  for  the  case  of  woman — 
a  significance  so  radical  for  our  present  argument,  even 
to  its  minutia  of  practical  living,  that  it  cannot  be 
too  early  or  too  thoroughly  insisted  upon.  But  be- 
fore we  proceed  to  the  special  case  of  woman  it  is 
well  that  we  should  clearly  perceive  as  a  general  guid- 
ing truth,  which  will  never  fail  us,  either  in  interpre- 
tation, prediction,  or  instruction,  the  unfailing  gaze 
of  Nature,  as  manifested  in  the  world  of  life,  towards 
the  future.  There  is  no  truth  more  significant  for 


First  Principles  33 

our  interpretation  of  the  meaning  of  the  Universe,  or 
at  least  of  our  planetary  life:  there  is  none  more 
relevant  to  the  fate  of  empires,  and  therefore  to  the 
interests  of  the  enlightened  patriot :  there  is  none  more 
worthy  to  be  taken  to  heart  by  the  individual  of  either 
sex  and  of  any  age,  adolescent  or  centenarian,  as  the 
secret  of  life's  happiness,  endurance,  and  worth.  It 
may  be  permitted,  then,  briefly  to  survey  the  main 
truths,  and,  therefore,  the  main  teachings  of  the  past, 
as  they  may  be  read  by  those  who  seek  in  the  facts  of 
life  the  key  to  its  meaning  and  its  use. 


CHAPTER    II 

THE   LIFE   OF   THE   WORLD   TO   COME 

WHEN  we  survey  the  past  of  the  earth  as  science 
has  revealed  it  to  us,  we  gain  some  conceptions  which 
will  help  us  in  our  judgments  as  to  what  this  phe- 
nomenon of  human  life  may  signify  in  the  future.  We 
are  accustomed  to  look  upon  the  earth  as  aged,  but 
these  terms  are  only  relative;  and  if  we  compare  our 
own  planet  with  its  neighbours  in  the  solar  system, 
we  shall  have  good  reason  to  suppose  that,  though 
the  past  of  the  earth  is  very  prolonged,  its  future  will 
probably  be  far  more  so.  As  for  life — and  we  must 
think  not  only  of  human  life,  but  of  life  as  a  plane- 
tary phenomenon — that  is  necessarily  much  more  re- 
cent than  the  formation  even  of  the  earth's  crust,  the 
existence  of  water  in  the  liquid  state  being  necessary 
for  life  in  any  of  its  forms.  And  human  life  itself, 
though  the  extent  of  its  past  duration  is  seen  to  be 
greater  the  more  deeply  we  study  the  records,  is  yet 
a  relatively  recent  thing.  The  utmost,  it  appears,  that 
we  can  assign  to  our  past  would  be  perhaps  six  million 
years,  taking  our  species  back  to  mid-Miocene  times. 
Doubtless  this  is  a  mighty  age  as  compared  with  the 
few  thousand  years  allotted  to  us  in  bygone  chronolo- 
gies; but,  looked  at  sub  specie  aternitatis,  and  with 

34 


The  Life  of  the  World  to  Come  35 

an  eye  which  is  prepared  to  look  forward  also,  and 
especially  with  relation  to  what  we  know  and  can  pre- 
dict regarding  the  sun,  these  past  six  million  years  may 
reasonably  be  held  to  comprise  only  the  infantine  pe- 
riod of  man's  life. 

It  is  very  true  that  on  such  estimates  as  those  of 
Lord  Kelvin,  and  according  to  what  astronomers  and 
geologists  believed  not  more  than  twelve  or  even  eight 
years  ago,  regarding  the  secular  cooling  of  earth 
and  sun — that,  according  to  these,  the  time  is  by  no 
means  "  unending  long,"  and  we  may  foresee,  not  so 
remotely,  the  end  of  the  solar  heat  and  light  of  which 
we  are  the  beneficiaries.  But  the  discovery  of  radium 
and  the  phenomena  of  radio-activity  have  profoundly 
modified  these  estimates,  justifying,  indeed,  the  acumen 
of  Lord  Kelvin,  who  always  left  the  way  open  for  re- 
consideration should  a  new  source  of  heat  and  energy 
in  general  be  discovered.  We  know  now  that,  to 
consider  the  earth  first,  its  crust  is  not  self-cooling,  or 
at  any  rate  not  self-cooling  only,  for  it  is  certainly 
self-heating.  There  is  an  almost  embarrassing 
amount  of  radium  in  the  earth's  crust,  so  far  as  we 
have  examined  it;  a  quantity,  that  is  to  say,  so  great 
that  if  the  same  proportion  were  maintained  at  deeper 
levels  as  at  those  which  we  can  investigate,  the  earth 
would  have  to  be  far  hotter  than  it  is.  Similar  rea- 
soning applies  to  the  sun.  Definite,  immediate  proof 
of  the  presence  of  radium  there  is  not  forthcoming 
yet,  but  that  presence  is  far  more  than  probable,  espe- 
cially since  the  existence  of  solar  uranium,  the  known 
ancestor  of  radium,  has  been  demonstrated.  The 


36  Woman  and  Womanhood 

reckonings  of  Helmholtz  and  others,  based  upon  the 
supposition  that  the  solar  energy  is  entirely  derived 
from  its  gravitational  contraction,  must  be  superseded. 
It  would  require  but  a  very  small  proportion  of  ra- 
dium in  the  solar  constitution  to  account  for  all  the 
energy  which  the  centre  of  our  system  produces;  and, 
as  we  have  already  seen,  the  earth  is  to  no  small  ex- 
tent its  own  sun — its  own  source  of  heat.  The  pros- 
pect thus  opened  out  by  modern  physical  inquiry  sup- 
ports more  strongly  than  ever  the  conviction  that  the 
life  of  this  world  to  come  will  be  very  prolonged.  It 
is  true  that  there  is  always  the  possibility  of  accident. 
Encountering  another  globe,  our  sun  would  doubtless 
produce  so  much  heat  as  to  incinerate  all  planetary 
life.  But  the  excessive  remoteness  of  the  sun  from 
the  nearest  fixed  star  suggests  that  the  constitution  of 
the  stellar  universe  is  such  that  an  accident  of  this 
kind  is  extremely  improbable.  As  for  comets,  the 
earth's  atmosphere  has  already  encountered  a  comet, 
even  during  the  brief  period  of  astronomical  observa- 
tion. This  thick  overcoat  of  ours  protects  us  from  the 
danger  of  such  chances. 

What,  then,  is  the  record?  We  are  told  that  the 
belief  in  progress  is  a  malady  of  youth,  which  experi- 
ence and  the  riper  mind  will  dissipate.  Some  such 
argument  from  the  lips  of  the  disillusioned  or  the 
disidealized  has  been  possible,  perhaps,  with  some 
measure  of  probability,  until  within  our  own  times. 
They  must  now  forever  hold  their  peace.  We  know 
as  surely  as  we  know  the  elementary  phenomena  of 
physics  or  chemistry,  that  the  record  of  life  upon  our 


The  Life  of  the  World  to  Come  37 

planet,  though  not  only  a  record  of  progress  by  any 
means,  has  nevertheless  included  that  to  which  the 
name  of  progress  cannot  be  denied  in  any  possible 
definition  of  the  word.  For  myself,  I  understand  by 
progress  the  emergence  of  mind,  and  its  increasing 
dominance  over  matter.  Such  categories  are,  no 
doubt,  unphilosophical  in  the  ultimate  sense,  but  they 
are  proximately  convenient  and  significant.  Now,  if 
progress  be  thus  defined,  we  can  see  for  ourselves  that 
life  has  truly  advanced,  not  merely  in  terms  of  ana- 
tomical or  physiological — i.e.  mechanical  or  chemical 
— complexity,  but  in  terms  of  mind.  The  facts  of  nu- 
trition teach  us  that  the  first  life  upon  the  earth  was 
vegetable;  and  though  the  vegetable  world  displays 
great  complexity,  and  that  which,  on  some  definitions, 
would  be  called  progress,  yet  we  cannot  say  that  there 
is  any  more  mind,  any  greater  differentiation  or  de- 
velopment of  sentience,  in  the  oak  than  in  the  alga. 
When  we  turn,  however,  to  the  animal  world — which 
is  parasitic,  indeed,  upon  the  vegetable  world — we 
find  that  in  what  we  may  call  the  main  line  of  ascent 
there  has  been,  along  with  increasing  anatomical  com- 
plexity, the  far  greater  emergence  of  mind.  In  its 
earliest  manifestations,  sentience,  consciousness,  the 
psychical  in  general,  and  the  capacity  for  it,  must  be 
regarded  merely  as  phenomena  of  the  physical  or- 
ganism; the  capacity  to  feel,  as  no  more  than  a  prop- 
erty of  the  living  body;  and  such  mind  as  there  is  ex- 
ists for  the  body.  But,  as  we  may  see  it,  there  has 
been  a  gradual  but  infinitely  real  turning  of  the  tables, 
so  that,  even  in  a  dog,  as  the  lover  of  that  dog  would 


38  Woman  and  Womanhood 

grant,  the  loss  of  limbs  and  tail,  or,  indeed,  of  any 
portion  of  the  body  not  necessary  to  life,  does  not 
mean  the  loss  of  the  essential  dog — not  the  loss  of 
that  which  the  lover  of  the  dog  loves.  Already,  that 
which  is  not  to  be  seen  or  handled  has  become  the 
more  real.  In  ourselves,  it  is  a  capital  truth,  which 
asceticism,  old  or  new,  perverted  or  sane,  has  always 
recognized,  that  the  mind  is  the  man,  and  must  be 
master,  and  the  body  the  servant.  Yet,  historically, 
this  creature,  who  by  the  self  means  not  the  body,  but, 
as  he  thinks,  its  inhabitant,  is  historically  and  lineally 
developed — is  also,  indeed,  developed  as  an  individual 
— from  an  organism  in  which  anything  to  be  called 
psychical  is  but  an  apparently  accidental  attribute,  to 
be  discerned  only  on  close  examination.  This  emer- 
gence of  mind  is  progress;  and  this,  notwithstanding 
the  sneers  of  those  who  do  not  love  the  word  or  the 
light,  has  occurred.  Its  history  is  written  indelibly 
in  the  rocks.  And,  as  we  shall  argue,  this  is  the  su- 
preme lesson  of  evolution — that  progress  is  possible, 
because  progress  has  occurred. 

Assuredly  we  should  never  use  this  word  "  pro- 
gress "  without  reminding  ourselves  of  the  cardinal 
distinction  that  exists  between  two  forms  that  it  may 
manifest.  There  is  a  progress  which  consists  in  and 
depends  upon  an  advance  in  the  constitution  of  the 
living  individual;  and,  so  far  as  we  are  more  men- 
tal and  less  physical  than  the  men  who  have  left  us 
such  relics  as  the  Neanderthal  skull,  in  so  far  we 
exemplify  this  kind  of  progress.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  we  can  claim  progress  as  compared  with  even 


The  Life  of  the  World  to  Come  39 

the  Greeks  in  some  respects,  though  there  is  no  evi- 
dence whatever  that,  so  far  as  the  individual  is  con- 
cerned, there  is  any  natural,  inherent,  organic  prog- 
ress. But  we  know  more.  Our  school-boys  know 
more  than  Aristotle.  We  stand  upon  Greek  shoul- 
ders. This  is  traditional  progress — something  out- 
side the  germ-plasm;  a  thing  dependent  upon  our 
great  human  faculty  of  speech. 

That,  surely,  is  why  the  word  infantine  was  rightly 
used  in  our  first  paragraph.  For  we  may  ask  why, 
if  man  be  millions  of  years  old,  any  record  of  progress 
should  be  a  matter  of  only  a  few  thousand  years — 
perhaps  not  more  than  fifteen  or  twenty.  The  an- 
swer, I  believe,  is  that  traditional  progress  depends 
upon  the  possibility  of  tradition.  Now  speech,  apart 
from  writing,  involves  the  possibility  of  tradition  from 
generation  to  generation,  and  I  am  very  sure  that 
"  Man  before  speech  "  is  a  myth;  the  more  we  learn 
of  the  anthropoid  apes  the  surer  we  may  be  of  that. 
But,  after  all,  the  possibilities  of  progress  dependent 
upon  aural  memory  are  sadly  limited;  not  only  be- 
cause it  is  easy  to  forget,  but  because  it  is  also  con- 
spicuously easy  to  distort,  as  a  familiar  round-game 
testifies.  The  greatest  of  all  the  epochs  in  human 
history  was  that  which  saw  the  genesis  of  written 
speech.  I  believe  that  hundreds  of  thousands,  nay 
millions,  of  preceding  years  were  substantially  sterile 
just  because  the  educational  acquirements  of  indi- 
viduals could  be  transmitted  to  their  children  neither 
in  the  germ-plasm  (for  we  know  such  transmission  to 
be  impossible),  nor  outside  the  germ-plasm,  by  means 


40  Woman  and  Womanhood 

of  writing.  The  invention  of  written  language  ac- 
counts, then,  we  may  suppose,  for  the  otherwise  in- 
comprehensible disparity  between  the  blank  record  of 
long  ages,  and  the  great  achievement  of  recent  his- 
tory— an  achievement  none  the  less  striking  if  we  re- 
member that  the  historical  epoch  includes  a  thousand 
years  of  darkness.  Thus,  as  was  said  at  the  Royal  In- 
stitution in  1907,  when  discussing  the  nature  of  prog- 
ress, we  may  argue  in  a  new  sense  that  the  historians 
have  made  history:  it  is  the  possibility  of  recording 
that  has  given  us  something  to  record. 

Now,  it  is  in  terms  of  this  latter  kind  of  progress 
that  our  duty  to  the  past,  as  we  conceive  it,  may  be 
defined.  And  in  its  terms  also  must  we  define  the 
grounds  of  our  veneration  for  the  past.  None  of  us 
invented  language,  spoken  or  written;  nor  yet  num- 
bers, nor  the  wheel,  nor  much  else.  We  see  further 
than  our  ancestors  because  we  stand  upon  their  shoul- 
ders, and,  as  Coleridge  hinted,  this  may  be  so  even 
though  we  be  dwarfs  and  they  were  giants.  Some  of 
us  see  this.  How  can  we  fail  to  do  so?  And  the  past 
becomes  in  our  eyes  a  very  real  thing,  to  which  we  are 
so  greatly  indebted  that  we  should  even  live  for  it. 
But  there  is  a  great  danger,  dependent  upon  a  great 
error,  here.  Let  us  consider  what  is  our  right  atti- 
tude towards  the  past.  We  are  its  children  and  its 
heirs.  We  are  infinitely  indebted  to  it.  We  must  love 
and  venerate  that  which  was  lovable  and  venerable  in 
it.  But  are  we  to  live  for  it? 

If  we  could  imagine  ourselves  coming  from  afar 
and  contemplating  the  sequence  of  universal  phe- 


The  Life  of  the  World  to  Come  41 

nomena  now  for  the  first  time,  we  should  realize  that 
the  past,  though  real,  because  it  was  once  real,  is  yet 
a  fleeting  aspect  of  change,  and,  in  a  very  real  sense 
also,  is  not.  Nor,  indeed,  is  the  future ;  but  it  will  be. 
We  cannot  alter,  we  cannot  benefit,  we  cannot  serve 
the  past,  because  it  is  not  and  will  not  be.  Our  beset- 
ting tendency  as  individuals  is  to  live  for  our  own 
pasts,  more  especially  as  we  grow  old;  to  become 
retrospective,  to  cease  to  look  forward,  even  to  dedi- 
cate what  remains  to  us  of  life  to  the  service  of  what 
is  not  at  all.  In  this  respect,  as  in  so  many  others, 
we  are  less  wise  than  children.  We  will  not  let  the 
dead  bury  its  dead.  This  is  also  the  tendency  of  all 
institutions.  Even  if  there  were  founded  an  Institute 
of  the  Future,  dedicated  to  the  life  of  this  world  to 
come,  after  only  one -generation  its  administrators 
would  be  consulting  the  interests  of  the  past,  turning 
to  the  service  of  the  name  and  the  memory  of  their 
founder,  though  it  was  for  the  future  that  he  lived. 
Throughout  all  our  social  institutions  we  can  perceive 
this  same  worship  of  what  no  longer  is  at  the  cost 
of  the  most  real  of  all  real  things,  which  is  the  life 
of  the  generation  that  is  and  the  generations  that  are 
to  be. 

Everywhere  the  price  for  this  idolatry  is  exacted. 
The  perpetual  image  of  it  is  Lot's  wife,  who,  look- 
ing backwards  upon  that  from  which  she  had  escaped, 
was  turned  into  a  pillar  of  salt.  Nature  may  or  may 
not  have  a  purpose,  and  exhibit  designs  for  that  pur- 
pose; she  may  or  may  not,  in  philosophical  language, 
be  teleological.  Man  is  and  must  be  teleological.  We 


42  Woman  and  Womanhood 

must  live  for  the  morrow,  for  what  will  be,  whether 
as  individuals  or  as  a  nation,  or  our  ways  are  the  ways 
of  death.  This  is  looked  upon  as  a  human  failing — 
that  man  never  is,  but  always  to  be  blest;  that  man  is 
never  satisfied,  that  he  will  not  rest  content  with  pres- 
ent achievement. 

Well,  it  is  stated  of  our  first  cousin,  once  removed, 
the  orang-outang,  that  in  the  adult  state  he  is  aroused 
only  for  the  snatching  of  food,  and  then  "  relapses 
into  repose."  His  reach  does  not  exceed  his  grasp, 
and  one  need  not  preach  contentment  to  him.  But  we, 
the  latest  and  highest  products  of  the  struggle  for  ex- 
istence, we  are  strugglers  by  constitution;  and  when 
we  relapse  into  repose  we  degenerate.  Only  on  con- 
dition of  living  for  the  morrow  can  we  remain  hu- 
man. Put  a  sound  limb  on  crutches  and  you  paralyze 
it;  wear  smoked  glasses  and  your  eyes  become  intol- 
erant of  light,  or  wear  glasses  that  make  the  muscle 
of  accommodation  superfluous  and  it  atrophies;  take 
pepsin  and  hydrochloric  acid  and  the  stomach  will  be- 
come incapable  of  producing  them;  cease  to  chew  and 
your  teeth  decay;  let  the  newspaper  prepare  your 
mental  food  as  the  cook  cuts  up  your  physical  food, 
and  you  will  become  incapable  of  thought — that  is,  of 
mental  mastication  and  digestion.  It  is  above  all 
things  imperative  to  strive,  to  have  a  goal,  to  seek  it 
on  our  own  legs,  to  cry  for  the  moon  rather  than  for 
nothing  at  all.  And  Nature  teaches  us  unequivocally 
that  our  purpose  is  ever  onward — 

To  sail  beyond  the  sunset,  and  the  baths 
Of  all  the  western  stars,  until  we  die. 


The  Life  of  the  World  to  Come  43 

It  is  to  go,  and  not  to  get,  that  is  the  glory.  To  be 
content  is  to  have  no  ideal  beyond  the  real;  we  were 
better  dead  and  nourishing  grass.  It  is  part  of  the 
whole  structure  of  life,  as  we  can  read  it,  whether  in 
the  animal  or  in  the  vegetable  world,  but  pre-eminently 
in  ourselves,  that  the  very  body  of  the  individual  is 
constructed  as  for  purpose ;  nay  more,  as  for  the  pur- 
poses of  the  future.  Every  little  baby  girl  that  is  born 
into  the  world  bears  upon  her  soft  surface  signs  and 
portents — not  merely  promise,  but  the  promise  of  pro- 
vision— for  the  life  of  the  world  to  come.  At  her 
very  birth  she  teaches  us  that  she  is  not  created  for 
self  alone,  but  for  what  will  be.  Running  through 
the  whole  body — and  this  the  more  markedly  the 
higher  the  type  of  life — we  find  organs,  tissues,  func- 
tions, co-ordinations  existing  not  for  the  present,  but 
for  the  life  of  the  world  to  come.  When,  some  clay, 
the  social  organism  is  as  rightly  constructed  as  the 
body  of  any  woman,  or  even,  in  some  measure,  of  any 
man,  when  it  is  similarly  dedicated  to  the  real  future, 
and  as  resolutely  turned  away  from  any  worship  of 
what  no  longer  is,  then  heaven  will  be  nearer  to  earth. 

It  is  quite  clear  that  the  supreme  choice  for  any  in- 
dividual or  institution  or  nation  is  between  unborn 
to-morrow  and  dead  yesterday.  No  one  who  con- 
cerns himself  in  the  current  political  controversies,  as, 
for  instance,  that  thing  of  unspeakable  shame  which  is 
called  the  "  education  question,"  will  doubt  that  the 
present  and  the  future  are  constantly  being  sacrificed 
to  the  past.  It  may  be  that  the  spirit  of  a  trust  is 
being  grossly  violated;  but,  rather  than  infringe  the 


44  Woman  and  Womanhood 

letter  of  it,  the  life  of  to-day  and  to-morrow  must  suf- 
fer: thus  do  the  worshippers  of  dead  yesterday — the 
most  lethal  idol  before  which  fond  humanity  ever 
prostrated  itself. 

If  it  be  our  duty  to  do — not  "  as  though  to  breathe 
were  life  " — and  if  nature  indicates  the  future  as  that 
which  we  are  to  serve,  what  evidence  have  we,  or  what 
likelihood,  that  such  service  is  worth  our  while?  Of 
course,  such  a  question  as  this  may  be  answered  in 
some  such  terms  as  those  of  the  further  question, 
What  has  posterity  done  for  us?  And  it  is  interest- 
ing, perhaps,  to  consider  that,  so  far  as  we  can  judge 
the  attitude  of  our  ancestors  towards  ourselves,  their 
chief  interest  in  us  seems  to  have  been  as  to  what  we 
should  think  of  them — "  What  will  posterity  say?" 
They  left  their  records,  as  we  leave  our  records,  for 
posterity  to  discover.  With  singular  lack  of  judg- 
ment, as  I  think,  we  bury  examples  of  our  newspapers 
for  posterity  to  discover:  these  are  amongst  the  things 
which  I  should  rather  not  have  posterity  discover. 
But  this  is  no  right  outlook  upon  the  future.  It  is  not 
a  question  of  what  posterity  can  do  for  us.  Posterity 
is  here  within  us.  The  life  of  the  world  to  come  is  in 
our  keeping.  We  carry  it  about  with  us  in  all  our 
goings  and  comings.  It  is  at  the  mercy  of  what  we 
eat  and  drink,  at  the  mercy  of  the  diseases  we  contract. 
Its  fate  is  involved  when  we  fall  in  love  with  each 
other,  or  out  of  love  with  each  other;  it  is  we  our- 
selves. Just  as  the  father  who  perhaps  is  losing  his 
own  hair  may  like  to  see  how  pleasantly  his  children's 
hair  is  growing,  and  finds  consolation  therein;  just  as, 


The  Life  of  the  World  to  Come  45 

indeed,  all  the  hopes  of  the  parent  become  gradually 
transferred  from  self  to  that  further  self,  those  fur- 
ther selves,  which  his  children  are,  so  we  are  to  look 
upon  the  future  as  our  continuing  self.  To  ask,  What 
has  posterity  done  for  us?  should  be  looked  upon  as 
if  one  should  say,  What  have  my  children  done  for 
me?  The  parallel  is  indeed  a  very  close  one:  and  it 
is  pointed  out  by  the  fine  sentence  from  Herbert 
Spencer,  which  should  be  known  to  all  of  us — "  A 
transfigured  sentiment  of  parenthood  regards  with 
solicitude  not  child  and  grandchild  only,  but  the  gen- 
erations to  come  hereafter — fathers  of  the  future, 
creating  and  providing  for  their  remote  children." 

We  may  grant  that  there  is  no  money  in  posterity. 
The  germ-plasm  has  infinite  possibilities;  but,  so  long 
as  it  remains  germ-plasm,  it  can  write  no  cheques  in 
our  favour.  If  you  serve  the  present,  the  present  will 
pay;  posterity  does  not  pay.  If  you  write  a  "  Merry 
Widow,"  the  present  will  pay;  if  you  write  an  "  Un- 
finished Symphony,"  you  will  be  dust  ere  it  is  per- 
formed. If  you  create  that  which  will  last  forever, 
but  which  makes  no  appeal  to  the  transient  tastes  of 
the  moment,  you  may  starve  and  die  and  rot,  because 
the  future,  for  which  you  work,  cannot  reward  you. 
Life  is  so  constructed  that  only  in  our  own  day,  and 
not  always  now,  is  the  mother — even  Nature's  own 
supreme  organ  of  the  future — rewarded  for  her  ma- 
ternal sacrifice.  Nature  does  not  trouble  about  the 
fate  of  the  present,  because  she  is  always  pressing  on 
and  pressing  on  towards  something  more,  higher,  bet- 
ter. The  present,  the  individual,  are  but  the  organs 


46  Woman  and  Womanhood 

of  her  purpose.  We  are  to  look  upon  ourselves  as 
ends  in  ourselves;  but  we  are  also  means  towards  ends 
which  we  can  only  dimly  conceive,  but  towards  which 
we  may  rightly  work,  and  the  service  of  which,  though 
by  no  means  freedom  in  the  ordinary  sense,  is  yet  of 
that  higher  kind,  that  perfect  freedom,  which  consists 
in  the  development  of  all  the  higher  attributes  of  our 
nature.  For  it  is  in  our  nature  to  work  and  to  feel 
and  to  live  for  the  life  that  will  be.  That,  as  I  say,  is 
because  living  creatures  are  so  constructed. 

Huxley  said  that  if  the  present  level  of  human  life 
were  to  show  no  rising  in  the  future,  he  should  wel- 
come the  kindly  comet  that  should  sweep  the  whole 
thing  away.  None  of  us  is  content  with  things  as  they 
are.  If  we  are,  better  were  it  for  us  to  be  nourishing 
the  grass  and  serving  the  things  that  will  be  in  that  way, 
if  we  cannot  in  any  other.  What  promise,  then,  have 
we  that  things  as  they  will  be  are  worth  working  for? 
We  live  now  in  an  age  to  which  there  has  been  re- 
vealed the  fact  of  organic  evolution.  From  the  fire- 
mist,  from  the  mud,  from  the  merely  brutal,  there 
have  been  evolved — such  is  the  worth  of  Nature's 
womb — there  have  been  evolved  intelligence  and  love, 
sacrifice,  ideals;  splendours  which  no  splendour  to 
come  can  utterly  dim.  These  things  are  in  the  power 
of  Nature.  This  is  what  "  dead  matter  "  can  mother. 
So  much  the  worse  for  our  contemptible  conceptions  of 
matter,  and  That  of  which  matter  is  the  manifestation. 
But  if  it  be  that  from  the  slime,  by  natural  processes, 
there  can  grow  a  St.  Francis,  surely  our  dim  notions 
of  the  potencies  of  Nature  must  be  exalted.  The 


The  Life  of  the  World  to  Come  47 

forces  that  have  erected  us  from  the  worm,  are  they 
necessarily  exhausted  or  exhaustible?  Who  will  dare 
to  set  limits  to  the  promise  of  Nature's  womb?  I 
mean,  in  a  word,  that  the  history  of  evolution  is  a 
warrant  for  the  idea  that  we  ourselves,  even  erected 
men  and  women,  are  but  stages  to  what  may  be  higher. 
We  look  with  contempt  upon  the  apes,  but  time  must 
have  been  when  "  simian  "  would  have  been  as  proud 
an  adjective  as  "  human  "  is  to-day:  and  human  may 
become  superhuman. 

Many  passages  might  be  quoted  to  show  that  our 
expectation  of  future  progress  is  well  based,  and  I 
will  content  myself  with  a  single  excerpt  from  the  final 
page  of  the  masterpiece  of  which  all  the  civilized 
world  was  lately  celebrating  the  jubilee.  Says  Dar- 
win: "Hence  we  may  look  with  some  confidence  to  a 
secure  future  of  great  length.  And  as  natural  selec- 
tion works  solely  by  and  for  the  good  of  each  being, 
all  corporeal  and  mental  endowments  will  tend  to 
progress  towards  perfection." 

The  quotation  will  suffice  to  remind  us  that,  if  we 
are  to  serve  the  life  of  the  world  to  come  in  the  surest 
way,  we  must  become  Eugenists,  accepting  and  apply- 
ing to  human  life  Nature's  great  principle  of  the  selec- 
tion of  worth  for  parenthood  and  the  rejection  of 
unworth.  We  must  modify  and  adapt  our  conceptions 
of  education  thereto.  We  must  make  parenthood  the 
most  responsible  thing  in  life.  We  must  teach  the  girl 
— aye,  and  the  boy  too — that  the  body  is  holy,  for  it  is 
the  temple  of  life  to  come.  We  must  perceive  in  our 
most  imperious  instincts  Nature's  care  for  the  future, 


48  Woman  and  Womanhood 

and  must  humanize  and  sanctify  them  by  conscious  rec- 
ognition of  their  purpose,  and  by  provident  co-opera- 
tion with  Nature  towards  her  supreme  end.  We  could 
spare  from  education,  perhaps,  those  fictions  concern- 
ing the  past  which  are  sometimes  called  history,  were 
they  replaced  by  a  knowledge  of  our  own  nature  and 
constitution  as  instruments  of  the  future. 

Let  us  grant  even,  for  the  argument,  that  nothing 
more  is  possible  than  mankind  has  yet  achieved. 
There  remains  the  hope  that  that  which  human  na- 
ture at  its  best  has  been  capable  of  may  be  realized  by 
human  nature  at  large.  In  their  great  moments  the 
great  men  have  seen  this.  That  last  sentence  is,  in- 
deed, a  paraphrase  from  a  remark  at  the  end  of  Her- 
bert Spencer's  "  Ethics."  Ruskin — to  choose  the 
polar  antithesis  of  the  Spencerian  mind — declares  that 
"  there  are  no  known  limits  to  the  nobleness  of  person 
or  mind  which  the  human  creature  may  attain  if  we 
wisely  attend  to  the  laws  of  its  birth  and  training." 
Wordsworth  asks  whether  Nature  throws  any  bars 
across  the  hope  that  what  one  is  millions  may  be. 
Take  it,  then,  that  nothing  more  is  conceivable  in  the 
way  of  mathematics  than  a  Newton,  or  of  drama  than 
an  ^Eschylus  or  a  Shakespeare,  or  of  sacrifice  than  a 
Christ.  These,  then,  are  types  of  what  will  be.  They 
demonstrate  what  human  nature  is  capable  of.  What 
one  is,  why  may  not  millions  be?  Here  is  an  ideal  to 
work  for.  Here  is  something  real  to  worship,  to  dedi- 
cate a  life  to.  It  is  not  merely  that  we  can  make 
smoother  the  paths  of  future  generations — which 
George  Meredith  declared  to  be  the  great  purpose 


The  Life  of  the  World  to  Come  49 

and  duty  of  our  lives — but  that,  as  Ruskin  suggests  in 
the  foregoing  quotation,  we  may  raise  the  inherent 
quality  of  those  future  generations,  so  that  they  can 
make  their  own  ways  smooth  and  straight  and  high. 
It  is  our  business,  I  repeat,  to  conceive  of  parenthood 
as  the  most  responsible  and  sacred  thing  in  life. 
True,  it  now  follows,  according  to  physiological  law, 
upon  the  satisfaction  of  certain  tendencies  of  our  na- 
ture, which  in  themselves  may  be  gratified,  and  even 
worthily  gratified,  without  reference  to  anything  but 
the  present;  yet  these  tendencies,  commonly  reviled 
and  regarded  with  contempt — at  least  overt  contempt 
—exist,  like  most  of  our  attributes,  for  the  life  of  the 
world  to  come.  And  that  in  which  they  may  result, 
the  bringing  of  new  human  life  into  the  world,  is  the 
most  tremendous,  as  it  is  the  most  mysterious,  of  our 
possibilities. 

The  laws  of  life  are  such  that  at  any  given  moment 
the  entire  future  is  absolutely  at  the  mercy  of  the  pres- 
ent. The  laws  of  life,  indeed;  one  might  have  said 
the  law  of  universal  causation.  But  so  it  is.  There 
is  no  conceivable  limit  to  our  responsibility.  We  act 
for  the  moment,  we  act  for  self;  but  there  will  be  no 
end  to  the  consequences.  When  the  stuff  of  which  our 
bodies  are  made  has  passed  through  a  thousand  cycles, 
the  consequences  of  our  brief  moments  will  still  be 
felt.  This  dependence  of  the  future  upon  the  present 
in  the  world  of  life  is  an  almost  unrealizable  thing. 
Life  could  not  have  persisted  upon  such  conditions  had 
not  Nature  from  the  first,  and  increasingly  up  to  our 
own  day  (for  it  is  the  human  infant  that  is  the  most 


50  Woman  and  Womanhood 

helpless,  and  the  longest  helpless),  had  not  Nature, 
I  say,  persistently  constructed  the  individual,  in  all  his 
or  her  attributes,  as  a  being  whose  warrant  and  pur- 
pose lay  yet  beyond.  We  are  organs  of  the  race, 
whether  we  will  or  no.  We  are  made  for  the  future, 
whether  we  will,  whether  we  care,  or  no.  We  are 
only  obeying  Nature,  and  therefore  in  a  position  to 
command  her,  in  dedicating  ourselves  and  our  pur- 
poses, our  customs,  our  social  structures,  to  the  life 
of  the  world  to  come.  We  shall  be  there.  Our  pur- 
poses and  hopes,  the  flesh  and  blood  of  many  of  us, 
will  be  there.  Posterity  will  be  what  we  make  it,  as 
we,  alas !  are  what  our  ancestors  have  made  us. 

To  this  increasing  purpose  there  will  come,  I  sup- 
pose, an  end — an  inscrutable  end.  Yearly  the  evi- 
dence makes  it  more  probable  that  in  a  sister  world 
we  are  gazing  upon  the  splendid  efforts  of  purposeful, 
intelligent,  co-ordinated  life  to  battle  against  planet- 
ary conditions  which  threaten  it  with  death  by  thirst. 
How  long  intelligence  has  existed  upon  Mars,  if  in- 
telligence there  be,  no  one  can  say;  nor  yet  what  its 
future  will  be.  It  would  seem  probable  that  our  own 
fate  must  be  similar,  but  it  is  far  removed.  And 
though  the  Whole  may  seem  wanton,  purposeless, 
stupid,  we  are  very  little  folk;  we  see  very  dimly;  we 
see  only  what  we  have  the  capacity  to  see;  and  there 
are  more  things  in  heaven  and  earth  than  are  dreamt 
of  in  the  philosophy  of  the  wisest  of  us.  So  also  there 
are  many  events  in  the  womb  of  time  which  will  be  de- 
livered. We  are  the  shapers,  the  creators,  the  parents 
of  those  events.  The  still,  small  voice  of  the  unborn 


The  Life  of  the  World  to  Come  51 

declares  our  responsibility.  There  may  be  no  reward. 
What  does  reward  mean?  Who  rewards  the  sun,  or 
the  rain,  or  the  oak,  or  the  tigress?  But  there  is  the 
doing  of  one's  work  in  the  world,  the  serving  of  the 
highest  and  most  real  purpose  that  may  be  revealed 
to  us.  That  is  to  be  oneself,  to  fulfil  one's  destiny, 
to  be  a  part  of  the  universe,  and  worthy  to  be  such  a 
part.  And  though  it  be  even  unworthy  for  us  to  sug- 
gest that  at  least  posterity  will  be  grateful  to  us,  such 
a  thought  may  perhaps  console  us  a  little.  At  any 
rate,  to  those  who  worship  and  live  for  the  past,  we 
may  offer  this  alternative :  let  them  work  for  what  will 
be.  Perhaps  the  reward  will  be  as  real  as  any  that  the 
worship  of  what  is  not  can  offer.  And,  reward  or  no 
reward,  it  is  something  to  have  an  ideal,  something  to 
believe  that  earth  may  become  heavenly,  and  that,  in 
some  real  sense  which  we  can  dimly  perceive,  we  may 
be  part — must  be  part,  indeed — of  that  great  day 
which  is  in  our  keeping,  and  which  it  is  our  privilege 
to  have  some  share  in  shaping.  Thus  we  may  repeat, 
and  thrill  to  repeat,  with  new  meaning,  the  old  but  still 
living  words,  Expecto  resurrectionem  mortuorum,  et 
vitam  venturi  s#culi — "  I  look  for  the  resurrection  of 
the  dead  and  the  life  of  the  world  to  come." 


CHAPTER    III 

THE   PURPOSE   OF   WOMANHOOD 

IN  due  course  we  shall  have  to  discuss  the  little  that 
is  yet  known  and  to  discuss  the  much  that  is  asserted 
by  both  sides,  for  this  or  that  end,  regarding  the  dif- 
ferences between  men  and  women.  By  this  we  mean, 
of  course,  the  natural  as  distinguished  from  the  nur- 
tural  differences — to  use  the  antithetic  terms  so  use- 
fully adapted  by  Sir  Francis  Galton  from  Shakespeare. 
Our  task,  we  shall  soon  discover,  is  not  an  easy  one: 
because  it  is  rarely  easy  to  disentangle  the  effects  of 
nature  from  those  of  nurture,  all  the  phenomena, 
physical  and  psychical,  of  all  living  creatures  being 
not  the  sum  but  the  product  of  these  two  factors.  The 
sharp  allotment  of  this  or  that  feature  to  nature  or  to 
nurture  alone  is  therefore  always  wholly  wrong:  and 
the  nice  estimation  of  the  relative  importance  of  the 
natural  as  compared  with  the  nurtural  factors  must 
necessarily  be  difficult,  especially  for  the  case  of  man- 
kind, where  critical  observation,  on  a  large  scale,  and 
with  due  control,  of  the  effects  of  environment  upon 
natural  potentialities  is  still  lacking. 

But  here,  at  least,  we  may  unhesitatingly  declare 
and  insist  upon,  and  shall  hereafter  invariably  argue 
from,  the  one  indisputable  and  all-important  distinc- 
tion between  man  and  woman.  We  must  not  commit 

52 


The  Purpose  of  Womanhood  53 

the  error  of  regarding  this  distinction  as  qualitative 
so  much  as  quantitative:  by  which  is  meant  that  it 
really  is  neither  more  nor  less  than  a  difference  in 
the  proportions  of  two  kinds  of  vital  expenditure. 
Nor  must  we  commit  the  still  graver  error  of  assert- 
ing, without  qualification,  that  such  and  such,  and  that 
only,  is  the  ideal  of  womanhood,  and  that  all  women 
who  do  not  conform  to  this  type  are  morbid,  or,  at 
least,  abnormal.  It  takes  all  sorts  to  make  a  world, 
we  must  remember.  Further,  the  more  we  learn, 
especially  thanks  to  the  modern  experimental  study  of 
heredity,  regarding  the  constitution  of  the  individual 
of  either  sex,  the  more  we  perceive  how  immensely 
complex  and  how  infinitely  variable  that  constitution 
is.  Nay  more,  the  evidence  regarding  both  the  higher 
animals  and  the  higher  plants  inclines  us  to  the  view, 
not  unsupported  by  the  belief  of  ages,  that  woman  is 
even  more  complex  in  constitution  than  man,  and 
therefore  no  less  liable  to  vary  within  wide  limits. 
On  what  one  may  term  organic  analysis,  comparable 
to  the  chemist's  analysis  of  a  compound,  woman  may 
be  found  to  be  more  complex,  composed  of  even  more 
numerous  and  more  various  elementary  atoms,  so  to 
say,  than  man. 

And  if  these  new  observations  upon  the  nature  of 
femaleness  were  not  enough  to  warn  the  writer  who 
should  rashly  propose,  after  the  fashion  of  the  un- 
wise, who  on  every  hand  lay  down  the  law  on  this 
matter,  to  state  once  and  for  all  exactly  what,  and 
what  only,  every  woman  should  be,  we  find  that  an- 
other long-held  belief  as  to  the  relative  variety  of  men 


54  Woman  and  Womanhood 

and  women  has  lately  been  found  baseless.  It  was 
long  held,  and  is  still  generally  believed — in  conse- 
quence of  that  universal  confusion  between  the  effects 
of  nature  and  of  nurture  to  which  we  have  already  re- 
ferred— that  women  are  less  variable  than  men,  that 
they  vary  within  much  narrower  limits,  and  that  the 
bias  towards  the  typical,  or  mean,  or  average,  is 
markedly  greater  in  the  case  of  women  than  of  men. 
A  vast  amount  of  idle  evidence  is  quoted  in  favour 
of  a  proposition  which  seems  to  have  some  a  priori 
plausibility.  It  is  said — of  course,  without  any  allu- 
sion to  nurture,  education,  environment,  opportunity 
— that  such  extreme  variations  as  we  call  genius  are 
much  commoner  amongst  men  than  women :  and  then 
that  the  male  sex  also  furnishes  an  undue  proportion 
of  the  insane — as  if  there  were  no  unequal  incidence 
of  alcohol  and  syphilis,  the  great  factors  of  insanity, 
upon  the  two  sexes.  Nevertheless,  observant  mem- 
bers of  either  sex  will  either  contradict  one  another  on 
this  point  according  to  their  particular  opportunities,  or 
will,  on  further  inquiry,  agree  that  women  vary  surely 
no  less  generally  than  men,  at  any  rate  within  con- 
siderable limits,  whatever  may  be  the  facts  of  colossal 
genius.  Indeed,  we  begin  to  perceive  that  differences 
in  external  appearance,  which  no  one  supposes  to  be 
less  general  among  women  than  among  men,  merely 
reflect  internal  differences;  and  that,  as  our  faces 
differ,  so  do  ourselves,  every  individual  of  either  sex 
being,  in  fact,  not  merely  a  peculiar  variety,  but  the 
solitary  example  of  that  variety — in  short,  unique. 
The  analysis  of  the  individual  now  being  made  by  ex- 


The  Purpose  of  Womanhood  55 

perimental  biology  lends  abundant  support  to  this 
view  of  the  higher  forms  of  life — the  more  abundant, 
the  higher  the  form.  So  vast,  as  yet  quite  incalcu- 
lably vast,  is  the  number  of  factors  of  the  individual, 
and  such  are  the  laws  of  their  transmission  in  the 
germ-cells,  that  the  mere  mathematical  chances  of  a 
second  identical  throw,  so  to  speak,  resulting  in  a 
second  individual  like  any  other,  are  practically  in- 
finitely small.  The  greater  physiological  complexity 
of  woman,  as  compared  with  man,  lends  especial 
force  to  the  argument  in  her  case.  The  remarkable 
phenomena  of  "  identical  twins,"  who  alone  of  hu- 
man beings  are  substantially  identical,  lend  great  sup- 
port to  this  proposition  of  the  uniqueness  of  every  in- 
dividual :  for  we  find  that  this  unexampled  identity 
depends  upon  the  fact  that  the  single  cell  from  which 
every  individual  is  developed,  having  divided  into  two, 
was  at  that  stage  actually  separated  into  two  inde- 
pendent cells,  thus  producing  two  complete  individuals 
of  absolutely  identical  germinal  constitution.  In  no 
other  case  can  this  be  asserted;  and  thus  this  unique 
identity  confirms  the  doctrine  that  otherwise  all  indi- 
viduals are  indeed  unique. 

It  is  necessary  to  state  this  point  clearly  in  the  fore- 
front of  our  argument,  both  lest  the  reader  should 
suppose  that  some  foolish  ideal  of  feminine  uniform- 
ity is  to  be  argued  for,  and  also  in  the  interests  of  the 
argument  as  it  proceeds,  lest  we  should  be  ourselves 
tempted  to  forget  the  inevitable  necessity — and,  as 
will  appear,  the  eminent  desirability — of  feminine,  no 
less  than  of  masculine,  variety. 


56  Woman  and  Womanhood 

Nevertheless,  there  remains  the  fact  that,  in  the 
variety  which  is  normally  included  within  the  female 
sex,  there  is  yet  a  certain  character,  or  combination  of 
characters,  upon  which,  indeed,  distinctive  femaleness 
depends.  It  may  in  due  course  be  our  business  to  dis- 
cuss the  subordinate  and  relatively  trivial  differences 
between  the  sexes,  whether  native  or  acquired;  but 
we  shall  encounter  nothing  of  any  moment  compared 
with  the  distinction  now  to  be  insisted  upon. 

One  may  well  suggest  that  insistence  is  necessary, 
for  never,  it  may  be  supposed,  in  the  history  of  civili- 
zation was  there  so  widespread  or  so  effective  a  ten- 
dency to  declare  that,  in  point  of  fact,  there  are  no 
differences  between  men  and  women  except  that,  as 
Plato  declared,  woman  is  in  all  respects  simply  a 
weaker  and  inferior  kind  of  man.  Great  writer 
though  Plato  was,  what  he  did  not  know  of  biology 
was  eminently  worth  knowing,  and  his  teaching  re- 
garding womanhood  and  the  conditions  of  mother- 
hood in  the  ideal  city  is  more  fantastically  and  ludi- 
crously absurd  than  anything  that  can  be  quoted,  I 
verily  believe,  from  any  writer  of  equal  eminence.  If, 
indeed,  the  teaching  of  Plato  were  correct,  there  would 
be  no  purpose  in  this  book.  If  a  girl  is  practically  a 
boy,  we  are  right  in  bringing  up  our  girls  to  be  boys. 
If  a  woman  is  only  a  weaker  and  inferior  kind  of  man, 
those  women — themselves,  as  a  rule,  the  nearest  ap- 
proach to  any  evidence  for  this  view — who  deny  the 
weakness  and  inferiority  and  insist  upon  the  identity, 
are  justified.  Their  error  and  that  of  their  supporters 
is  twofold. 


The  Purpose  of  Womanhood  57 

In  the  first  place,  they  err  because,  being  themselves, 
as  we  shall  afterwards  have  reason  to  see,  of  an  aber- 
rant type,  they  judge  women  and  womanhood  by 
themselves,  and  especially  by  their  abnormal  psycho- 
logical tendencies — notably  the  tendency  to  look  upon 
motherhood  much  as  the  lower  type  of  man  looks 
upon  fatherhood.  It  requires  closer  and  more  in- 
timate study  of  this  type  than  we  can  spare  space  for 
— more,  even,  than  the  state  of  our  knowledge  yet 
permits — in  order  to  demonstrate  how  absurd  is  the 
claim  of  women  thus  peculiarly  constituted  to  speak 
for  their  sex  as  a  whole. 

But,  secondly,  those  women  and  men  who  assert 
the  doctrine  of  the  identity  of  the  sexes  are  led  to  err, 
not  because  it  can  really  be  hidden  from  the  most 
casual  observer  that  there  is  a  profound  distinction  be- 
tween the  sexes,  apart  from  the  case  of  the  defemi- 
nized  woman — but  because,  by  a  surprising  fallacy, 
they  confuse  the  doctrine  of  sex-equality  with  that  of 
sex-identity;  or,  rather,  they  believe  that  only  by 
demonstrating  the  doctrine  that  the  sexes  are  sub- 
stantially identical,  can  they  make  good  their  plea  that 
the  sexes  should  be  regarded  as  equal.  The  fallacy 
is  evident,  and  would  not  need  to  detain  us  but  for 
the  fact  that,  as  has  been  said,  the  whole  tendency 
of  the  time  is  towards  accepting  it — the  recent  bio- 
logical proof  of  the  fundamental  and  absolute  differ- 
ence between  the  sexes  being  unknown  as  yet  to  the 
laity.  Yet  surely,  even  were  the  facts  less  salient,  or 
even  were  they  other  than  they  are,  it  is  a  pitiable 
failure  of  logic  to  suppose,  as  is  daily  supposed,  that 


58  Woman  and  Womanhood 

in  order  to  prove  woman  man's  equal  one  must  prove 
her  to  be  really  identical  in  all  essentials,  given,  of 
course,  equal  conditions.  Controversialists  on  both 
sides,  and  even  some  of  the  first  rank,  are  content  to 
accept  this  absurd  position. 

The  one  party  seeks  to  prove  that  woman  is  man's 
equal  because  Rosa  Bonheur  and  Lady  Butler  have 
painted,  Sappho  and  George  Eliot  have  written,  and 
so. forth;  in  other  words,  that  woman  is  man's  equal 
because  she  can  do  what  he  can  do:  any  capacities  of 
hers  which  he  does  not  share  being  tacitly  regarded 
as  beside  the  point  or  insubstantial. 

The  other  party  has  little  difficulty  in  showing  that, 
in  point  of  fact,  men  do  things  admittedly  worth  doing 
of  which  women  are  on  the  whole  incapable ;  and  then 
triumphantly,  but  with  logic  of  the  order  which  this 
party  would  probably  call  "  feminine,"  it  is  assumed 
that  woman  is  not  man's  equal  because  she  cannot  do 
the  things  he  does.  That  she  does  things  vastly  better 
and  infinitely  more  important  which  he  cannot  do  at 
all,  is  not  a  point  to  be  considered;  the  baseless  basis 
of  the  whole  silly  controversy  being  the  exquisite  as- 
sumption, to  which  the  women's  party  have  the  folly 
to  assent,  that  only  the  things  which  are  common  in 
some  degree  to  both  sexes  shall  be  taken  into  account, 
and  those  peculiar  to  one  shall  be  ignored. 

It  is  my  most  solemn  conviction  that  the  cause  of 
woman,  which  is  the  cause  of  man,  and  the  cause  of 
the  unborn,  is  by  nothing  more  gravely  and  unneces- 
sarily prejudiced  and  delayed  than  by  this  doctrine  of 
sex-identity.  It  might  serve  some  turn  for  a  time,  as 


The  Purpose  of  Womanhood  59 

many  another  error  has  done,  were  it  not  so  palpably 
and  egregiously  false.  Advocated  as  it  is  mainly  by 
either  masculine  women  or  unmanly  men,  its  advo- 
cates, though  in  their  own  persons  offering  some  sort 
of  evidence  for  it,  are  of  a  kind  which  is  highly  repug- 
nant to  less  abnormal  individuals  of  both  sexes.  Hosts 
of  women  of  the  highest  type,  who  are  doing  the  silent 
work  of  the  world,  which  is  nothing  less  than  the  crea- 
tion of  the  life  of  the  world  to  come,  are  not  merely 
dissuaded  from  any  support  of  the  women's  cause  by 
the  spectacle  of  these  palpably  aberrant  and  unfemi- 
nine  women,  but  are  further  dissuaded  by  the  pro- 
found conviction  arising  out  of  their  woman's  nature, 
that  the  doctrine  of  sex-identity  is  absurd.  Many  of 
them  would  rather  accept  their  existing  status  of  social 
inferiority,  with  its  thousand  disabilities  and  injustices, 
than  have  anything  to  do  with  women  who  preach 
"  Rouse  yourselves,  women,  and  be  men !  "  and  who 
themselves  illustrate  only  too  fearsomely  the  conse- 
quences of  this  doctrine. 

Certainly  not  less  disastrous,  as  a  consequence  of 
this  most  unfortunate  error  of  fact  and  of  logic,  is  the 
alienation  from  the  woman's  cause  of  not  a  few  men 
whose  support  is  exceptionally  worth  having.  There 
are  men  who  desire  nothing  in  the  world  so  much  as 
the  exaltation  of  womanhood,  and  who  would  devote 
their  lives  to  this  cause,  but  would  vastly  rather  have 
things  as  they  are  than  aid  the  movement  of  "  Woman 
in  Transition  " — if  it  be  transition  from  womanhood 
to  something  which  is  certainly  not  womanhood  and 
at  best  a  very  poor  parody  of  manhood  except  in  cases 


60  Woman  and  Womanhood 

almost  infinitely  rare.  I  have  in  my  mind  a  case  of  a 
well-known  writer,  a  man  of  the  highest  type  in  every 
respect,  well  worth  enlisting  in  the  army  that  fights  for 
womanhood  to-day,  whose  organic  repugnance  to  the 
defeminized  woman  is  so  intense,  and  whose  percep- 
tion of  the  distinctive  characters  of  real  womanhood 
and  of  their  supreme  excellence  is  so  acute  that,  so  far 
from  aiding  the  cause  of,  for  instance,  woman's  suf- 
frage, he  is  one  of  its  most  bitter  and  unremitting 
enemies.  There  must  be  many  such — to  whom  the 
doctrine  of  sex-identity,  involving  the  repudiation  of 
the  excellences,  distinctive  and  precious,  of  women,  is 
an  offence  which  they  can  never  forgive. 

One  may  be  permitted  a  little  longer  to  delay  the 
discussion  of  the  distinctive  purpose  and  character  of 
womanhood,  because  the  foregoing  has  already  stated 
in  outline  the  teaching  which  biology  and  physiology 
so  abundantly  warrant.  For  here  we  must  briefly  re- 
fer to  the  work  of  a  very  remarkable  woman,  scarcely 
known  at  all  to  the  reading  public,  either  in  Great 
Britain  or  in  America,  and  never  alluded  to  by  the 
feminist  leaders  in  those  countries,  though  her  works 
are  very  widely  known  on  the  Continent  of  Europe, 
and,  with  the  whole  weight  of  biological  fact  behind 
them,  are  bound  to  become  more  widely  known  and 
more  effective  as  the  years  go  on.  I  refer  to  the 
Swedish  writer,  Ellen  Key,  one  of  whose  works,  though 
by  no  means  her  best,  has  at  last  been  translated  into 
English.  All  her  books  are  translated  into  German 
from  the  Swedish,  and  are  very  widely  read  and  deeply 
influential  in  determining  the  course  of  the  woman's 


The  Purpose  of  Womanhood  6l 

movement  in  Germany.  At  this  early  stage  in  our  ar- 
gument I  earnestly  commend  the  reader  of  any  age  or 
sex  to  study  Ellen  Key's  u  Century  of  tKe  Child."  It 
is  necessary  and  right  to  draw  particular  attention  to 
the  teaching  of  this  woman  since  it  is  urgently  needed 
in  Anglo-Saxon  countries  at  this  very  time,  and  almost 
wholly  unknown,  but  for  this  minor  work  of  hers  and 
an  occasional  allusion — as  in  an  article  contributed  by 
Dr.  Havelock  Ellis  to  the  Fortnightly  Review  some 
few  years  ago.  Especial  importance  attaches  to  such 
teaching  as  hers  when  it  proceeds  from  a  woman 
whose  fidelity  to  the  highest  interests,  even  to  the  un- 
challenged autonomy,  of  her  sex  cannot  be  questioned, 
attested  as  it  is  by  a  lifetime  of  splendid  work.  The 
present  controversy  in  Great  Britain  would  be  pro- 
foundly modified  in  its  course  and  in  its  character  if 
either  party  were  aware  of  Ellen  Key's  work.  The 
most  questionable  doctrines  of  the  English  feminists 
would  be  already  abandoned  by  themselves  if  either 
the  wisest  among  them,  or  their  opponents,  were  able 
to  cite  the  evidence  of  this  great  Swedish  feminist,  who 
is  certainly  at  this  moment  the  most  powerful  and  the 
wisest  living  protagonist  of  her  sex.  From  a  single 
chapter  of  the  book,  to  which  it  may  be  hoped  that  the 
reader  will  refer,  there  may  be  quoted  a  few  sentences 
which  will  suffice  to  indicate  the  reasons  why  Ellen  Key 
dissociated  herself  some  ten  years  ago  from  the  gen- 
eral feminist  movement,  and  will  also  serve  as  an  in- 
troduction from  the  practical  and  instinctive  point  of 
view  to  the  scientific  argument  regarding  the  nature 


62  Woman  and  Womanhood 

and  purpose  of  womanhood,  which  must  next  concern 
us.    Hear  Ellen  Key : — 

"Doing  away  with  an  unjust  paragraph  in  a  law  which 
concerns  woman,  turning  a  hundred  women  into  a  field  of 
work  where  only  ten  were  occupied  before,  giving  one  woman 
work  where  formerly  not  one  was  employed — these  are  the 
mile-stones  in  the  line  of  progress  of  the  woman's  rights 
movement.  It  is  a  line  pursued  without  consideration  of 
feminine  capacities,  nature  and  environment. 

"  The  exclamation  of  a  woman's  rights  champion  when  an- 
other woman  had  become  a  butcher,  '  Go  thou  and  do  like- 
wise,' and  an  American  young  lady  working  as  an  execu- 
tioner, are,  in  this  connection,  characteristic  phenomena. 

"  In  our  programme  of  civilization,  we  must  start  out  with 
the  conviction  that  motherhood  is  something  essential  to  the 
nature  of  woman,  and  the  way  in  which  she  carries  out  this 
profession  is  of  value  for  society.  On  this  basis  we  must 
alter  the  conditions  which  more  and  more  are  robbing  woman 
of  the  happiness  of  motherhood  and  are  robbing  children  of 
the  care  of  a  mother. 

"  I  am  in  favour  of  real  freedom  for  woman ;  that  is,  I 
wish  her  to  follow  her  own  nature,  whether  she  be  an  excep- 
tional or  an  ordinary  woman  ...  I  recognize  fully  the  right 
of  the  feminine  individual  to  go  her  own  way,  to  choose  her 
own  fortune  or  misfortune.  I  have  always  spoken  of  women 
collectively  and  of  society  collectively. 

"  From  this  general,  not  from  the  individual,  standpoint,  I 
am  trying  to  convince  women  that  vengeance  is  being  exacted 
on  the  individual,  on  the  race,  when  woman  gradually  destroys 
the  deepest  vital  source  of  her  physical  and  psychical  being, 
the  power  of  motherhood. 

"  But  present-day  woman  is  not  adapted  to  motherhood; 
she  will  only  be  fitted  for  it  when  she  has  trained  herself  for 


The  Purpose  of  Womanhood  63 

motherhood  and  man  is  trained  for  fatherhood.  Then  man 
and  woman  can  begin  together  to  bring  up  the  new  genera- 
tion out  of  which  some  day  society  will  be  formed.  In  it  the 
completed  man — the  superman — will  be  bathed  in  that  sun- 
shine whose  distant  rays  but  colour  the  horizon  of  to-day/' 


CHAPTER    IV 

THE    LAW   OF    CONSERVATION 

STUDENTS  of  the  physical  sciences  discovered  in  the 
nineteenth  century  a  universal  law  of  Nature,  always 
believed  by  the  wisest  since  the  time  of  Thales,  but 
never  before  proven,  which  is  now  commonly  known  as 
the  law  of  the  conservation  of  energy.  When  we  say 
to  a  child,  "  You  cannot  eat  your  cake  and  have  it,"  we 
are  expressing  the  law  of  the  conservation  of  matter, 
which  is  really  a  more  or  less  accurate  part-expression 
of  the  law  of  the  conservation  of  energy.  The  law 
that  from  nothing  nothing  is  made — and  further, 
though  here  this  concerns  us  less,  that  nothing  is  ever 
destroyed — is  the  only  firm  foundation  for  any  work 
or  any  theory  whether  in  science  or  philosophy.  The 
chemist  who  otherwise  bases  his  account  of  a  reaction 
is  wrong;  the  sociologist  who  denies  it  Nature  will 
deny.  It  was  the  sure  foundation  upon  which  Her- 
bert Spencer  erected  the  philosophy  of  evolution;  and 
every  page  of  this  book  depends  upon  the  certainty 
that  this  law  applies  to  woman  and  to  womanhood  as 
it  does  to  the  rest  of  the  universe.  Further,  it  may 
be  shown  that  certain  less  universal  but  most  impor- 
tant generalizations  made  by  two  or  three  biologists 
are  indeed  special  cases  of  the  universal  law.  There 
is,  first,  the  law  of  Herbert  Spencer,  which  states  that 


The  Law  of  Conservation  65 

for  every  individual  there  is  an  inevitable ,  issue  be- 
tween the  demands  of  parenthood  and  the  demands 
of  self;  and  there  is,  secondly,  the  law  of  Professors 
Geddes  and  Thomson,  which  asserts  that  this  issue 
specially  concerns  the  female  as  compared  with  the 
male  sex,  the  distinguishing  character  of  femaleness 
being  that  in  it  a  higher  proportion  of  the  vital  energy 
is  expended  upon  or  conserved  for  the  future  and 
therefore,  necessarily,  a  smaller  proportion  for  the 
purposes  of  the  individual.  It  is  of  service  to  one's 
thinking,  perhaps,  to  regard  Geddes  and  Thomson's 
law  as  a  special  case  of  Spencer's,  and  Spencer's  as  a 
special  case  of  the  law  of  the  conservation  of  energy. 
First,  then,  somewhat  of  detail  regarding  the  law  of 
balance  between  expenditure  on  the  self  and  expendi- 
ture upon  the  race;  and  then  to  the  all-important  ap- 
plication of  this  to  the  case  of  womanhood — for  upon 
this  application  the  whole  of  the  subsequent  argu- 
ment depends. 

When  he  set  forth,  with  great  daring,  to  write  the 
"  Principles  of  Biology,"  Spencer  was  already  at  an 
advantage  compared  with  the  accepted  writers  upon 
the  subject,  not  merely  because  of  his  stupendous  in- 
tellectual endowment,  but  also  because  the  idea  of  the 
conservation  of  energy  was  a  permanent  guiding 
factor  in  all  his  thought.  Thus  it  was,  one  supposes, 
that  this  bold  young  amateur,  for  he  was  little  more, 
perceived  in  the  light  of  the  evolutionary  idea  of 
which  he  was  one  of  the  original  promulgators,  a 
simple  truth  which  had  been  unperceived  by  all  pre- 
vious writers  upon  biology,  from  Aristotle  onwards. 


66  Woman  and  Womanhood 

It  is  in  the  last  section  of  his  book  that  Spencer  pro- 
pounds his  "  law  of  multiplication,"  depending  upon 
what  he  calls  the  "  antagonism  between  individuation 
and  genesis."  As  I  have  observed  elsewhere,  the 
word  antagonism  is  perhaps  too  harsh,  and  may  cer- 
tainly be  misleading,  for  it  may  induce  us  to  suppose 
that  there  is  no  possible  reconciliation  of  the  claims 
and  demands  of  the  race  and  the  individual,  the  fu- 
ture and  the  present.  I  believe  most  devoutly  that 
there  is  such  a  reconciliation,  as  indeed  Spencer  him- 
self pointed  out,  and  a  central  thesis  of  this  book  is 
indeed  that  in  the  right  expression  of  motherhood  or 
foster-motherhood,  woman  may  and  increasingly  will 
achieve  the  highest,  happiest,  and  richest  self-develop- 
ment. Thus  one  may  be  inclined  to  abandon  the  word 
antagonism,  and  to  say  merely  that  there  is  a  neces- 
sary inverse  ratio  between  "  individuation "  and 
"  genesis,"  to  use  the  original  Spencerian  terms.  This 
principle  has  immense  consequences — most  notably 
that  as  life  ascends  the  birth-rate  falls,  more  of  the 
vital  energy  being  used  for  the  enrichment  and  de- 
velopment of  the  individual  life,  and  less  for  mere 
physical  parenthood.  We  shall  argue  that,  in  the  case 
of  mankind,  and  preeminently  in  the  case  of  woman, 
this  enrichment  and  development  of  the  individual 
life  is  best  and  most  surely  attained  by  parenthood 
or  foster-parenthood,  made  self-conscious  and  provi- 
dent, and  magnificently  transmuted  by  its  extension 
and  amplification  upon  the  psychical  plane  in  the  edu- 
cation of  children  and,  indeed,  the  care  and  ennoble- 
ment of  human  life  in  all  its  stages. 


The  Law  of  Conservation  67 

This  law  of  Spencer's  has  been  discussed  at  length 
by  the  present  writer  in  a  previous  volume,*  and  we 
may  therefore  now  proceed  to  its  notable  illustration 
in  the  case  of  womanhood  and  the  female  sex  in  gen- 
eral, as  made  by  Geddes  and  Thomson  now  more 
than  twenty  years  ago.  It  is  surprising  that  the  dis- 
tinguished authors  do  not  seem  to  have  recognized 
that  their  law  is  a  special  case  of  Spencer's;  but  one 
of  them  granted  this  relation  in  a  discussion  upon  the 
present  writer's  first  eugenic  lecture  to  the  Sociological 
Society,  t 

We  must  therefore  now  briefly  but  adequately  con- 
sider the  argument  of  the  remarkable  book  published 
by  the  Scottish  biologists  in  1889,  and  presented  in  a 
new  edition  in  1900.  The  latter  date  is  of  interest, 
because  it  coincides  with  the  re-discovery  of  the  work 
of  Mendel,  published  in  1865,  to  which  we  must  after- 
wards more  than  once  refer;  and  the  work  of  the 
Mendelians  during  the  subsequent  decade  very  sub- 
stantially modifies  much  of  the  authors'  teaching 
upon  the  determination  of  sex,  and  the  intimate  na- 
ture of  the  physiological  differences  between  the  sexes. 
We  have  learnt  more  about  the  nature  of  sex  in  the 
decade  or  so  since  the  publication  of  the  new  edition 
of  the  "  Evolution  of  Sex  "  than  in  all  preceding  time. 
Such,  at  least,  is  the  well-grounded  opinion  of  all  who 
have  acquainted  themselves  with  the  work  of  the 
Mendelians,  as  we  shall  see:  and  therefore  that  book 
is  by  no  means  commended  to  the  reader's  attention  as 

*  "  Parenthood  and  Race-Culture:   An  Outline  of  Eugenici." 

f  "The  Obstacles  to  Eugenics,"  published  in  the  Sociological  Review,  July  1909. 


68  Woman  and  Womanhood 

the  last  word  upon  the  subject.  The  rather  would  one 
particularly  direct  him  to  the  following  prophetic  and 
admirable  passage  in  the  preface  of  1900: — 

"  Our  hope  is  that  the  growing  strength  of  the  still  young 
school  of  experimental  evolutionists  may  before  many  years 
yield  results  which  will  involve  not  merely  a  revision,  but  a 
recasting  of  our  book." 

— a  passage  which  may  well  content  the  authors  to- 
day, when  its  fulfilment  is  so  signal. 

Yet  assuredly  the  main  thesis  of  the  volume  stands, 
and  profoundly  concerns  every  student  of  womanhood 
in  any  of  its  aspects.  It  will  continue  to  stand  when 
the  brilliant  foolishness  of  such  writers  as  poor  Wein- 
inger,  the  author  of  that  evidently  insane  product 
"  Sex  and  Character,"  is  rightly  estimated  as  inter- 
esting to  the  student  of  mental  pathology  alone. 
There  has  lately  been  a  kind  of  epidemic  citation  from 
Weininger,  whose  book  is  obviously  rich  in  characters 
that  make  it  attractive  to  the  ignorant  and  the  many; 
and  it  is  high  time  that  we  should  concern  ourselves 
less  with  the  product  of  a  suicidal  and  much-to-be- 
pitied  boy,  and  more  with  the  sober  and  scientific 
work  for  which  daily  verification  is  always  at  hand. 

We  cannot  do  better  than  have  before  us  at  the 
outset  the  authors'  statement  of  their  main  proposi- 
tion, in  the  preface  to  the  new  edition  of  their  work: — 

"  In  all  living  creatures  there  are  two  great  lines  of  varia- 
tion, primarily  determined  by  the  very  nature  of  protoplasmic 
change  (metabolism) ;  for  the  ratio  of  the  constructive  (ana- 
bolic) changes  to  the  disruptive  (katabolic)  ones,  that  is  of 


The  Law  of  Conservation  69 

income  to  outlay,  of  gains  to  losses,  is  a  variable  one.  In  one 
sex,  the  female,  the  balance  of  debtor  and  creditor  is  the  more 
favourable  one;  the  anabolic  processes  tend  to  preponderate, 
and  this  profit  may  be  at  first  devoted  to  growth,  but  later 
towards  offspring,  of  which  she  hence  can  afford  to  bear  the 
larger  share.  To  put  it  more  precisely,  the  life-ratio  of  ana- 
bolic to  katabolic  changes,  A/K,  in  the  female  is  normally 
greater  than  the  corresponding  life-ratio,  a/k,  in  the  male. 
This  for  us,  is  the  fundamental,  the  physiological,  the  consti- 
tutional difference  between  the  sexes ;  and  it  becomes  expressed 
from  the  very  outset  in  the  contrast  between  their  essential 
reproductive  elements,  and  may  be  traced  on  into  the  more 
superficial  sexual  characters." 

A  little  further  on  (p.  17),  the  authors  say: — 

"  Without  multiplying  instances,  a  review  of  the  animal 
kingdom,  or  a  perusal  of  Darwin's  pages,  will  amply  confirm 
the  conclusion  that  on  an  average  the  females  incline  to  pas- 
sivity, the  males  to  activity.  In  higher  animals,  it  is  true  that 
the  contrast  shows  itself  rather  in  many  little  ways  than  in 
any  one  striking  difference  of  habit,  but  even  in  the  human 
species  the  difference  is  recognized.  Every  one  will  admit 
that  strenuous  spasmodic  bursts  of  activity  characterize  men, 
especially  in  youth,  and  among  the  less  civilized  races;  while 
patient  continuance,  with  less  violent  expenditure  of  energy, 
is  as  generally  associated  with  the  work  of  women." 

We  must  shortly  proceed  to  study  the  origin  and 
determination  of  sex,  and  more  especially  of  female- 
ness,  in  the  individual,  and  here  we  shall  be  entirely 
concerned  with  the  new  knowledge  commonly  called 
Mendelism,  to  which  there  is  no  allusion  in  our  au- 
thors' pages.  Meanwhile  it  must  be  insisted  that  the 


70  Woman  and  Womanhood 

reader  who  will  either  read  their  pages  for  a  survey 
of  the  evidence  in  detail,  or  who  will  for  a  moment 
consider  the  evident  necessities  imposed  by  the  facts 
of  parenthood,  cannot  possibly  fail  to  satisfy  himself 
that  the  main  contention,  as  stated  in  the  foregoing 
quotations,  is  correct.  A  further  point  of  the  greatest 
importance  to  us  requires  to  be  made. 

It  is  that,  owing  to  profound  but  intelligible  causes, 
the  contrast  which  necessarily  obtains  between  the 
sexes  in  respect  of  their  vital  expenditure  is  most 
marked  in  the  case  of  our  own  species.  It  is  one  of 
the  conditions  of  progress  that  the  young  of  the 
higher  species  make  more  demands  upon  their 
mothers  than  do  the  young  of  humbler  forms.  In 
other  words,  progress  in  the  world  of  life  has  always 
leant  upon  and  been  conditioned  by  motherhood. 
Thus,  as  one  has  so  frequently  asserted  in  reference 
to  the  modern  campaign  against  infant  mortality,  the 
young  of  the  human  species  are  nurtured  within  the 
sacred  person — the  therefore  sacred  person — of  the 
mother  for  a  longer  period  in  proportion  to  the  body 
weight  than  in  the  case  of  any  other  species;  and  the 
natural  period  of  maternal  feeding  is  also  the  longest 
known.  On  the  other  hand,  the  physical  demands 
made  by  parenthood  upon  the  male  sex  are  no  greater 
in  our  case  than  in  that  of  lower  forms;  though  upon 
the  psychical  plane  the  great  fact  of  increasing  pa- 
ternal care  in  the  right  line  of  progress  may  never  be 
forgotten.  But  thus  it  follows  that  the  law  of  conser- 
vation, asserting  that  what  is  spent  for  self  cannot  be 
kept  for  the  race,  and  that  if  the  demands  of  the  fu- 


The  Law  of  Conservation  71 

ture  are  to  be  met  the  present  must  be  subordinated, 
not  merely  applies  to  woman,  but  applies  to  her  in 
unique  degree.  There  are  grounds,  also,  for  believ- 
ing that  what  is  demonstrably  and  obviously  true  on 
the  physical  plane  has  its  counterpart  in  the  psychical 
plane;  and  that,  if  woman  is  to  remain  distinctively 
woman  in  mind,  character,  and  temperament,  and  if, 
just  because  she  remains  or  becomes  what  she  was 
meant  to  be,  she  is  to  find  her  greatest  happiness,  she 
must  orient  her  life  towards  Life  Orient,  towards  the 
future  and  the  life  of  this  world  to  come.  Some  such 
doctrines  may  help  us  at  a  later  stage  to  decide 
whether  it  be  better  that  a  woman  should  become  a 
mother  or  a  soldier,  a  nurse  or  an  executioner. 


CHAPTER   V 

THE   DETERMINATION   OF   SEX 

WE  must  regard  life  as  essentially  female,  since 
there  is  no  choice  but  to  look  upon  living  forms  which 
have  no  sex  as  female,  and  since  we  know  that  in 
many  of  the  lower  forms  of  life  there  is  possible  what 
is  called  parthenogenesis  or  virgin-birth.  It  has,  in- 
deed, been  ingeniously  argued  by  a  distinguished 
American  writer,  Professor  Lester  Ward,*  that  the 
male  sex  is  to  be  looked  upon  as  an  afterthought, 
an  ancillary  contrivance,  devised  primarily  for  the 
advantages  of  having  a  second  sex — whatever  those 
advantages  may  exactly  be;  and  secondarily,  one 
would  add,  becoming  useful  in  adding  fatherhood  to 
motherhood  upon  the  psychical  plane  of  post-natal 
care  and  education  as  well. 

But  whatever  was  the  historical  or  evolutionary 
origin  of  sex,  we  may  here  be  excused  for  attaching 
more  importance — for  it  is  of  great  practical  conse- 
quence— to  the  origin  or  determination  of  sex  in  the  in- 
dividual. At  what  stage  and  under  what  influences 
did  the  child  that  is  born  a  girl  become  female?  To 
what  extent  can  we  control  the  determination  of  sex? 
Why  are  the  numbers  of  the  sexes  approximately  so 

*  See  his  "Pure  Sociology." 
72 


The  Determination  of  Sex  73 

equal?  What  determines  the  curious  disproportions 
observed  in  many  families,  which  may  be  composed 
only  of  girls  or  only  of  boys;  and,  as  is  asserted,  also 
observed  after  wars  and  epidemics  or  during  sieges, 
when  an  abnormally  high  proportion  of  boys  is  said  to 
be  born?  These  are  some  of  the  deeply  interesting 
questions  which  men  have  always  attempted  to  answer 
— with  the  beginnings  of  substantial  success  during  the 
present  century  at  last. 

In  general  it  is  true  that,  the  more  we  learn  of  the 
characters  and  histories  of  living  beings,  the  more  im- 
portance we  attach  to  nature  or  birth  and  the  less  to 
nurture  or  environment,  vastly  important  though  the 
latter  be.  Thus  to  the  student  of  heredity  nothing 
could  well  seem  more  improbable,  at  any  rate  amongst 
the  higher  animals,  than  that  characters  so  profound 
as  those  of  sex  should  be  determined  by  nurture.  He 
simply  cannot  but  believe  that  the  sex  of  the  individual 
is  as  inborn  as  his  backbone,  and  as  incapable  of  being 
created  by  varying  conditions  of  nurture.  The  causa- 
tion of  sex  is  therefore  really  a  problem  in  heredity; 
and  we  may  most  confidently  assert,  in  the  first  place, 
that  the  sex  of  every  human  being  is  already  deter- 
mined at  the  moment  of  conception  when,  indeed,  the 
new  individual  is  created:  determined  then  by  the  na- 
ture and  constitution  of  the  living  cells — or  of  one  of 
them — which  combine  to  form  the  new  being.  Subse- 
quent attempts  to  affect  the  sex,  as  by  means  of  the 
mother's  diet  and  the  like,  are  palpably  hopeless  from 
the  outset  and  always  will  be.  This  is  by  no  means 
to  say  that  conditions  affecting  the  mother — #s,  for 


74  Woman  and  Womanhood 

instance,  the  semi-starvation  of  a  prolonged  siege — 
may  not  affect  the  construction  of  the  germ-cells  which 
she  hbuses,  and  which  are  constantly  being  formed 
within  her  from  the  mother  germ-cells,  as  they  are 
called.  But  any  given  final  germ-cell,  such  as  will 
combine  with  another  from  an  individual  of  the  op- 
posite sex  to  form  a  new  being,  is  already  determined, 
once  for  all,  to  be  of  one  sex  or  the  other.  We  natu- 
rally ask,  then,  how  the  two  parents  are  concerned  in 
this  matter;  and  the  first  remarkable  answer  returned 
by  the  Mendelian  workers  during  the  last  three  or  four 
years  is  that  it  is  the  mother  who  determines  the  sex 
of  her  children  in  the  case  of  all  the  higher  animals. 
Her  contribution  to  the  new  being  is  called  the  ovum, 
and  it  is  believed  that  ova  are  of  two  kinds,  or,  we 
are  quite  right  in  saying,  of  two  sexes. 

Those  who  are  now  working  at  these  problems  ex- 
perimentally, actually  seeing  what  happens  in  given 
cases,  and  whom  we  may  for  convenience  call  Men- 
delians  after  the  master  who  gave  them  their  method 
and  their  key,  have  latterly  obtained  results  the  main 
tenour  of  which  must  be  stated  here,  as  they  indicate 
the  lines  of  a  portion  of  the  succeeding  argument. 
The  task  was  to  attack  experimentally  the  determina- 
tion of  sex — a  fascinating  problem  for  which  so  many 
solutions  that  failed  to  hold  water  have  been  found, 
but  hitherto  no  others.  In  finding  the  answer  to  it, 
as  they  appear  certainly  to  have  done  so  far  as  the 
higher  animals  are  concerned,  the  Mendelians  are 
also  beginning  to  ascertain,  as  we  shall  see,  certain 
basal  facts  as  to  the  composition  or  constitution  of 


The  Determination  of  Sex  75   » 

the  individual;  and  to  us,  who  wish  to  know  exactly 
what  a  woman  is,  and  what  she  is  as  distinguished 
from  a  man,  this  discovery  is  of  the  most  vital  impor- 
tance. The  experimental  facts  are  not  yet  numerous, 
and  if  they  were  not  consonant  with  facts  of  other 
orders,  it  would  be  rash  to  proceed;  but  it  will  be  evi- 
dent, in  the  sequel,  that  common  experience  is  well  in 
accord  with  the  experimental  evidence. 

It  appears  that,  amongst  at  any  rate  the  higher  ani- 
mals, the  sex  of  offspring  is  determined  by  the  nature 
of  the  mother's  contribution.  The  cell  derived  from 
the  father  is  always  male — as  goes  without  saying, 
we  might  add,  if  we  knew  little  of  the  subject.  But 
the  ovum,  the  cell  derived  from  the  mother,  may  carry 
either  femaleness  or  maleness.  When  an  ovum  bear- 
ing maleness  meets  the  invariably  maleness-bearing 
sperm,  the  resultant  individual  is  a  male,  of  course, 
and  he  is  male  all  through.  But  when  an  ovum  bear- 
ing femaleness  meets  a  sperm,  the  resulting  individual 
is  female,  femaleness  being  a  Mendelian  "  dominant  " 
to  maleness;  if  both  be  present,  femaleness  appears. 
The  female,  however,  is  not  female  all  through  as  the 
male  is  male  all  through.  So  far  as  sex  is  concerned, 
he  is  made  of  maleness  plus  maleness;  but  she  is  made 
of  femaleness  plus  maleness.  In  Mendelian  language 
the  male  is  homozygous,  so-called  "  pure  "  as  regards 
this  character.  But  the  female  is  heterozygous,  "  im- 
pure "  in  the  sense  that  her  femaleness  depends 
upon  the  dominance  of  the  factor  for  femaleness  over 
the  factor  for  maleness,  which  also  is  present  in  her. 
In  the  Mendelian  terminology,  she  is  an  instance  of 


j6  Woman  and  Womanhood 

impure  dominance.  The  observed  practical  equality 
in  the  numbers  of  the  two  sexes  is  in  exact  accord 
with  this  interpretation  of  the  facts,  this  proportion 
being  the  expected  and  observed  one  in  many  other 
cases  which  doubtless  depend  upon  parallel  conditions 
of  the  reproductive  cells. 

Surely  there  is  great  enlightenment  here:  for  the 
discovery  of  the  factors  determining  sex  is  a  very 
small  affair  compared  with  the  suggestive  inference 
as  to  the  constitution  of  womanhood.  Let  us  compare 
man  and  woman  on  the  basis  of  this  assumption. 

In  the  man  there  is  nothing  but  maleness.  This  is 
not  to  deny  that  he  may  possess  the  protective  instinct 
and  the  tender  emotion  which  is  its  correlate,  even 
though  these  were  undoubtedly  feminine  in  origin. 
But  it  is  to  deny  that  any  injury  to,  or  arrested  devel- 
opment of,  the  male  can  reveal  in  him  characters  dis- 
tinctively female.  He  may  fail  to  become  a  man  and 
may  remain  a  boy;  or,  having  been  a  man,  he  may  per- 
haps return,  under  certain  conditions,  to  a  more  youth- 
ful state;  but  he  will  never,  can  never,  display  any- 
thing distinctive  of  the  woman. 

Not  such,  however,  must  be  the  woman's  case.  If 
anything  should  interfere  with  the  development  and 
dominance  of  the  femaleness  factor  in  her,  there  is 
not  another  "  dose  "  of  femaleness,  so  to  speak,  to 
fall  back  upon;  but  a  dose  of  maleness.  We  may  be 
right  in  thus  seeking  to  explain  certain  familiar  phe- 
nomena, observed  in  women  under  various  conditions 
— as,  for  instance,  the  growth  of  hair  upon  the  face 
in  elderly  women,  the  assumption  of  a  masculine  voice 


The  Determination  of  Sex  77  , 

and  aspect,  and  so  forth.  Such  facts  are  frequently 
to  be  observed  after  the  climacteric  or  "  change  of 
life,"  which  probably  denotes  the  termination  of  the 
dominance  of  the  femaleness  factor.  They  are  also 
to  be  observed  as  a  consequence  of  operations  much 
/more  commonly  and  irresponsibly  performed  a  few 
years  ago  than  now,  which  abruptly  deprived  the  or- 
ganism of  the  internal  secretion  through  which,  as  we 
may  surmise,  the  femaleness  factor  in  the  germ  makes 
its  presence  effective. 

If  these  propositions  are  valid,  they  are  certainly 
important.  Our  attitude  towards  them  will  depend 
upon  our  estimates  of  the  worth  of  distinctive  woman- 
hood. We  may  regard  it  as  a  loss  to  society  that 
what  might  have  been  a  woman  should  become  only 
a  sort  of  man  of  rather  less  than  average  efficiency. 
Or  we  may  hail  with  delight  the  possibility  that,  after 
all,  we  may  be  able,  by  judicious  education,  to  make 
men  of  our  daughters.  But,  whatever  our  estimates, 
certainly  it  is  of  great  interest  to  inquire  how  far  and 
in  what  directions  education  may  affect  the  develop- 
ment of  what  was  given  in  the  germ.  We  cannot  yet 
answer  this  question.  In  a  thousand  matters  it  is  all- 
important  to  know  in  what  degree  education  can  con- 
trol nature,  but  until  we  know  what  the  nature  of  the 
individual  is  we  cannot  decide.  Professor  Bateson  has 
clearly  shown  that  we  shall  be  able  duly  to  estimate 
environment  only  when  Mendelian  analysis  has  gone 
much  further,  and  has  instructed  us  in  detail  as  to  the 
nature  of  the  material  upon  which  environment  is  to 
act. 


j8  Woman  and  Womanhood 

For  instance,  there  is  the  well-established  fact  that 
women  who  have  undergone  "  higher  education  "  show 
a  low  marriage-rate,  and  produce  very  few  children. 
However  considered,  the  fact  is  of  great  importance. 
But  the  right  interpretation  of  it  is  not  certain.  There 
are  women  of  a  type  approaching  the  masculine,  who 
are  evidently  so  by  nature.  Is  it  these  women,  al- 
ready predestined  for  something  other  than  distinctive 
womanhood,  that  offer  themselves  for  "  higher  educa- 
tion"? In  other  words,  is  there  a  selective  process 
at  work,  the  results  of  which  in  choosing  a  certain 
type  of  woman  we  attribute  to  the  education  under- 
gone? If  we  answer  this  question  wrongly,  and  act 
upon  our  erroneous  interpretation,  we  shall  certainly 
do  grave  injury  to  individuals  and  society. 

Thus,  we  might  roundly  condemn  the  higher  educa- 
tion of  women  in  toto,  and  hold  up  the  "  domestic 
woman  "  as  the  sole  type  to  which  every  woman  can 
and  must  be  made  to  conform.  Or,  on  the  other 
hand,  we  may  argue  that  it  is  well  to  provide  suitable 
opportunities  of  self-development  for  those  women 
whose  nature  practically  unfits  them  for  the  ordinary 
career  of  a  woman. 

I  do  not  think  that  any  one  who  has  had  opportuni- 
ties of  first-hand  observation  will  question  the  presence 
in  university  and  college  class-rooms  of  girls  of  the 
anomalous  type.  Each  generation  produces  a  certain 
number  of  such.  Probably  no  education  will  alter 
their  nature  in  any  radical  or  effective  way.  On  every 
ground,  personal  and  social,  we  must  be  right  in  pro- 
viding for  them,  as  for  their  brothers,  all  the  oppor- 


The  Determination  of  Sex  79 

tunities  they  may  desire.  But  I  am  convinced  that 
their  relative  number  is  not  large. 

The  great  majority  of  those  girls  who  are  nowa- 
days subjected  to  what  we  call  "  higher  education  " 
are  of  the  normal  type;  and  this  is  none  the  less  true 
because  the  proportion  of  the  anomalous  is  doubtless 
higher  here  than  in  the  feminine  community  at  large. 
The  ordinary  observation  of  those  teachers  who  year 
by  year  see  young  girls  at  the  beginning  of  their  higher 
education  will  certainly  confirm  the  statement  that  by 
far  the  greater  number  of  them  are  of  the  ordinary 
feminine  type.  If  this  be  so,  the  necessary  inference 
is  that  education  has  a  potent  influence,  and  that  it  must 
be  held  accountable  for  the  observed  facts  of  later 
years,  whether  those  facts  please  or  displease  us. 

The  human  being  is  the  most  adaptable — that  is  to 
say,  educable — of  all  living  creatures.  This  is  true  of 
women  as  well  as  men.  The  response  of  girls  to  ideas, 
ideals,  suggestion,  the  spirit  of  the  group,  is  an  un- 
questioned thing.  Further,  there  are  basal  facts  of 
physiology,  ultimately  dependent  on  the  law  of  the 
conservation  of  energy,  and  the  circumstance  that 
you  cannot  eat  your  cake  and  have  it,  which  work 
hand-in-hand,  on  their  own  effective  plane,  with  the 
psychological  influences  already  referred  to.  All 
physiology  and  psychology  lead  us  to  expect  those 
results  of  "  higher  education "  upon  its  subjects  or 
victims  which,  in  fact,  we  find,  and  which,  in  the 
main,  are  indeed  its  results  and  not  dependent  upon 
the  exceptional  natures  of  those  subjected  to  it.  The 
more  general  higher  education  becomes,  and  the  less 


80  Woman  and  Womanhood 

selection  is  exercised  upon  the  candidates  for  it,  the 
more  evident,  I  believe,  will  it  appear  that  woman 
responds  in  high  degree  to  the  total  circumstances  of 
her  life;  and  that  if  we  do  not  like  the  fruits  of  our 
labour  it  is  we  indeed  that  are  to  blame. 


CHAPTER   VI 

MENDELISM  AND   WOMANHOOD 

WE  are  accustomed  to  think  of  Mendelism  as  sim- 
ply a  theory  of  heredity,  by  which  term  we  should 
properly  understand  the  relation  between  living  gen- 
erations. Now  Mendelism  is  certainly  this,  but  I  be- 
lieve that  it  is  vastly  more.  Already  the  claim  has 
been  made,  though  not,  perhaps,  in  adequate  measure, 
by  the  Mendelians,  and  I  am  convinced  that  their  title 
to  it  will  be  upheld.  Mendelism  has  already  effected 
a  really  epoch-making  advance  in  our  knowledge  of 
heredity — the  relations  between  parents  and  off- 
spring; but  we  shall  learn  ere  long  that  it  has  yet 
more  to  teach  us  regarding  the  very  constitution  of 
living  beings.  As  modern  chemistry  can  analyse  a 
highly  complex  molecule  into  its  constituent  element- 
ary atoms,  so  the  Mendelians  promise  ere  long  to 
enable  us  to  effect  an  organic  analysis  of  living  crea- 
tures. For  many  decades  past  theory  has  perceived 
that,  in  the  germ-cells  whence  we  and  the  higher  ani- 
mals and  plants  are  developed,  there  must  exist — 
somewhere  intermediate  between  the  chemical  mole- 
cule and  the  vital  unit,  the  cell  itself — units  which  Her- 
bert Spencer,  the  first  and  greatest  of  their  students, 
called  physiological  or  constitutional  units.  Since  his 

Si 


82  Woman  and  Womanhood 

day  they  have  been  re-discovered — or  rather  re-named 
— by  a  host  of  students,  including  Haeckel,  Weismann, 
and  many  of  scarcely  less  distinction.  The  Mende- 
lian  "  factors/'  as  I  maintain  must  be  clear  to  any  stu- 
dent of  the  idea,  are  Spencer's  physiological  units. 
Of  course  neither  Spencer  nor  any  one  else,  until  the 
rediscovery  of  Mendel's  work,  had  any  notion  at  all 
of  the  remarkable  fashion  in  which  these  units  are 
treated  in  the  process  whereby  germ-cells  are  prepared 
for  their  great  destiny.  The  rule,  as  we  now  know, 
is  that  one  germ-cell  contains  any  given  unit,  while  an- 
other does  not.  The  process  of  cell-division,  whereby 
the  germ-cells  or  gametes*  are  made,  is  called  gameto- 
genesis.  Somewhere  in  its  course  there  occurs  the 
capital  fact  discovered  by  Mendel  and  called  by  him 
segregation.  A  cell  divides  into  two — which  are  the 
final  gametes.  One  of  these  will  definitely  contain  the 
M.endelian  factor,  and  the  other  will  be  as  definitely 
without  it.  Definite  -consequences  follow  in  the  con- 
stitution of  the  .offspring;  and  such  is  the  Mendelian 
contribution  to  ;heredity.  But  we  must  see  that  these 
.inquiries  cannot  be  far  pursued  without  telling  us 
vastly  :more  than  we  ever  knew  before  of  not  only  the 
Delation  between  individuals  of  successive  generations, 
:but  the  sVery  structure  of  the  individuals  themselves. 
It  is  'by  the  study  of  heredity  that  we  shall  learn  -to 
understand  the  individual.  For  instance,  experi- 
mental breeding  of  the  fowl  reveals  the  existence  of 
the  brooding  instinct  as  a  definite  unit,  which  enters, 
or  does  not  enter,  into  the  composition  of  the  indivi- 

*J.e.  marrying  cell«. 


Mend  eli sm  and  Womanhood  83 

dual,  and  which  is  quite  distinct  from  the  capacity  to 
produce  eggs.  Here  is  a  definite  distinction  sug- 
gested, for  the  case  of  the  fowl,  between  two  really 
distinct  things  which,  for  several  years  past,  I  have 
called  respectively  physical  and  psychical  motherhood. 
The  analysis  will  doubtless  go  far  further,  but  already 
the  facts  of  experiment  help  us  to  realize  the  compo- 
sition of  the  individual  mother — for  instance,  the  num- 
ber of  possible  variants,  and  the  non-necessity  of  a 
connection  between  the  capacity  to  produce  children 
and  the  parental  instinct  upon  which  the  care  of  them 
depends,  and  without  which  entire  and  perfect  mother- 
hood cannot  be. 

The  Mendelians  are  teaching  us,  too,  that  their 
"  factors,"  the  units  of  which  we  are  made,  are  often 
intertangled  or  mutually  repellent.  If  such-and-such 
goes  into  the  germ-cell,  so  must  something  else;  or  if 
the  one,  then  never  the  other.  There  may  thus  be 
naturally  determined  conditions  of  entire  womanhood; 
just  as  one  may  be  externally  a  woman,  yet  lack  cer- 
tain of  the  fractional  constituents  which  are  necessary 
for  the  perfect  being.  Complete  womanhood,  like 
genius — rarer  though  not  more  valuable — depends 
upon  the  co-existence  of  many  factors,  some  of 
which  may  be  coupled  and  segregated  together  in 
gameto-genesis,  while  others  may  be  quite  independent, 
only  chance  determining  the  throw  of  them.  And  the 
question  of  incompatibility  or  mutual  repulsion  of  fac- 
tors is  of  the  gravest  concern;  as,  for  instance,  if  it 
were  the  case — and  the  illustration  is  perhaps  none  too 
far-fetched — that  the  factor  for  the  brooding  instinct 


84  Woman  and  Womanhood 

and  the  factor  for  intellect  can  scarcely  be  allotted  to- 
gether to  a  single  cell. 

This  question  of  compatibilities  is  illustrated  very 
strikingly  by  the  case  of  the  worker-bee.  There  is  as 
yet  no  purely  Mendelian  interpretation  of  this  case, 
Mendel's  own  laborious  work  upon  heredity  in  bees 
having  been  entirely  lost,  and  practically  nothing  hav- 
ing been  done  since.  Yet,  as  will  be  evident,  the  main 
argument  of  Geddes  and  Thomson  leads  us  to  a  simi- 
lar interpretation  of  this  case  in  terms  of  compatibility. 

The  worker-bee  is  an  individual  of  a  most  remark- 
able and  admirable  kind,  from  whom  mankind  have 
yet  a  thousand  truths  to  learn.  She  is  distinguished 
primarily  by  the  rare  and  high  development  of  her 
nervous  apparatus.  In  terms  of  brain  and  mind,  using 
these  words  in  a  general  sense,  the  worker-bee  is  al- 
most the  paragon  of  animals.  The  ancients  supposed 
that  the  queen-bee  was  indeed  the  queen  and  ruler  of 
the  hive.  Here,  they  thought,  was  the  organizing 
genius,  the  forethought,  the  exquisite  skill  in  little 
things  and  great,  upon  which  the  welfare  of  the  hive 
and  the  future  of  the  race  depend.  But,  in  point  of 
fact,  the  queen-bee  is  a  fool.  Her  brain  and  mind 
are  of  the  humblest  order.  She  never  organizes  any- 
thing, and  does  not  rule  even  herself,  but  does  what 
she  is  told.  She  is  entirely  specialized  for  mother- 
hood; but  the  thinking,  and  the  determination  of  the 
conditions  of  her  motherhood,  are  in  the  hands  of 
other  females,  also  highly  specialized,  and  certainly 
the  least  selfish  of  living  things — yet  themselves  ster- 
ile, incapable  of  motherhood. 


Mendehsm  and  Womanhood  85 

Observe,  further,  that  these  wonderful  workers,  so 
highly  endowed  in  terms  of  brain,  are  amongst  the 
children  of  the  queen,  herself  a  fool;  and  that  it  was 
the  conditions  of  nourishment,  the  conditions  of  en- 
vironment or  education,  which  determined  whether 
the  young  creatures  should  develop  into  queens  or 
workers,  fertile  fools  or  sterile  wits.  We  have  here 
an  absolute  demonstration  that  environment  or  nur- 
ture can  determine  the  production  of  these  two  anti- 
thetic and  radically  opposed  types  of  femaleness. 

Now,  amongst  the  bees,  this  high  degree  of  speciali- 
zation works  very  well.  How  old  bee-societies  are 
we  cannot  say.  We  do  know,  at  any  rate,  that  bees 
are  invertebrate  animals,  and  therefore  of  immeasur- 
able antiquity  compared  with  man.  No  one  can  for 
a  moment  question  the  eminent  success  of  the  bee-hive ; 
and  that  success  depends  upon  the  extreme  specializa- 
tion of  the  female,  so  as  in  effect  to  create  a  third  sex. 
Further,  we  know  that  nurture  alone  accounts  for  this 
remarkable  splitting  of  one  sex  into  two  contrasted 
varieties. 

I  have  little  doubt  that  a  process  which  is,  at  the 
very  least,  analogous,  is  possible  amongst  ourselves; 
nay  more,  that  such  a  process  is  already  afoot.  In 
Japan  they  have  actually  been  talking  of  a  deliberate 
differentiation  between  workers  and  breeders;  such 
differentiation,  though  indeliberate,  is  to  be  seen  to- 
day in  all  highly  civilized  communities.  Is  it  likely  to 
be  as  good  for  us  as  for  the  bee-hive?  And,  granted 
its  value  as  a  social  structure,  is  it,  even  then,  to  be 
worth  while? 


86  Woman  and  Womanhood 

No  one  can  answer  these  questions,  though  I  ven- 
ture to  believe  that  it  is  something  to  ask  them.  So 
far  as  the  last  is  concerned,  we  must  not  admit  the 
smallest  infringement  of  the  supreme  principles  that 
every  human  being  is  an  end  in  himself  or  herself,  and 
that  the  worth  of  a  society  is  to  be  found  in  the  worth 
and  happiness  of  the  individuals  who  compose  it. 

Can  we,  as  human  beings,  regard  a  human  society 
as  admirable  because  it  is  successful,  stable,  numerous? 

The  question  is  a  fundamental  one,  for  it  matters  at 
what  we  aim.  As  it  becomes  increasingly  possible 
for  man  to  realize  his  ideals,  it  becomes  increasingly 
important  that  they  shall  be  right  ones;  and  there  is 
a  risk  to-day  that  the  growth  of  knowledge  shall  be  too 
rapid  for  wisdom  to  keep  pace  with.  We  are  reach- 
ing towards,  and  will  soon  attain  in  very  large  and  ef- 
fective measure,  nothing  less  than  a  control  of  life, 
present  and  to  come.  It  may  well  be  that  a  remodel- 
ling of  human  society  upon  the  lines  of  the  bee-hive  is 
feasible.  It  was  his  study  of  bees  that  made  a  Social- 
ist of  Professor  Forel,  certainly  one  of  the  greatest  of 
living  thinkers;  and  his  assumption  is  that  in  the  bee- 
hive we  have  an  example  largely  worthy  of  imitation. 
But  he  would  be  the  first  to  admit  that,  as  the  ordinary 
Socialist  has  yet  to  learn,  the  nature  of  the  society  is 
ultimately  determined  by  the  nature  of  the  individuals 
composing  it.  It  follows  that  the  bee-society  can  be 
completely,  or,  at  all  events  substantially,  imitated  only 
by  remodelling  human  nature  on  the  lines  of  the  in- 
dividual bee.  This  is  very  far  from  impossible;  there 
is  a  plethora  of  human  drones  already,  and  we  see  th? 


Mendelism  and  Womanhood  87 

emergence  of  the  sterile  female  worker.  But  is  such 
a  change — or  any  change  at  all  of  that  kind — to  be 
desired? 

The  Terms  of  Specialization. — It  surely  cannot  be 
denied  that  there  may  be  a  grave  antagonism  between 
the  interests  of  the  society  and  those  of  the  individual. 
It  is  a  question  of  the  terms  of  specialization  or  dif- 
ferentiation. In  the  study  of  the  individual  organism 
and  its  history  we  discern  specialization  of  the  cell  as 
a  capital  fact.  Organic  evolution  has  largely  de- 
pended upon  what  Milne-Edwards  called  the  "  physio- 
logical division  of  labour."  In  so  far  as  organic  evo- 
lution has  been  progressive,  it  has  entirely  coincided 
with  this  process  of  cell-differentiation.  That  is  the 
clear  lesson  which  the  student  of  progress  learns  from 
the  study  of  living  Nature.  Let  him  hold  hard  by  this 
truth,  and  by  it  let  him  judge  that  other  specialization 
which  human  society  presents. 

For  this  primary  and  physiological  division  of  la- 
bour has  its  analogue  in  a  much  later  thing,  the  divi- 
sion of  labour  in  human  society,  upon  which,  indeed, 
the  possibility  of  what  we  call  human  society  depends. 
And  it  is  plain  that  the  time  has  come  when  we  must 
determine  the  price  that  may  rightly  be  paid  for  this 
specialization.  Assuredly  it  is  not  to  be  had  for  noth- 
ing. Dr.  Minot  considers  that  death,  as  a  biological 
fact,  is  the  price  paid  for  cell-differentiation.  Now 
surely  the  death  of  individuality  is  the  price  paid  for 
such  specialization  as  that  of  the  workman  who  spends 
his  life  supervising  the  machine  which  effects  a  single 
process  in  the  making  of  a  pin,  and  has  never  even  seen 


88  Woman  and  Womanhood 

any  other  but  that  stage  in  the  process  of  making  that 
one  among  all  the  "  number  of  things  "  of  which  the 
world  is  full.  Here,  as  in  a  thousand  other  cases,  it 
has  cost  a  man  to  make  an  expert. 

How  far  we  are  entitled  to  go  we  shall  determine 
only  when  we  know  what  it  is  that  we  want  to  attain. 

If  we  desire  an  efficient,  durable,  numerous  society, 
there  are  probably  no  limits  whatever  that  we  need 
observe  in  the  process  of  specialization.  Pins  are 
cheaper  for  the  sacrifice  of  the  individual  in  their  mak- 
ing. In  general,  the  professional  must  do  better  than 
the  amateur;  the  lover  of  chamber  music  knows  that 
a  Joachim  or  Brussels  Quartet  is  not  to  be  found  every- 
where. Specialization  we  must  have  for  progress, 
or  even  for  the  maintenance  of  what  the  past  has 
achieved  for  us;  but  we  shall  pay  the  right  price  only 
by  remembering  the  principle  that  all  progress  in  the 
world  of  life  has  depended  on  cell-differentiation.  If 
we  prejudice  that  we  are  prejudicing  progress. 

Now  nothing  can  be  more  evident  than  that,  in  some 
of  our  specializations  of  the  individual  for  the  sake 
of  society,  we  are  opposing  that  specialization  within 
the  individual  which,  it  has  been  laid  down,  we  must 
never  sacrifice.  And  so  we  reach  the  basal  principle 
to  which  the  preceding  argument  has  been  guiding  us. 
It  is  that  the  specialization  of  the  individual  for  the 
sake  of  society  may  rightly  proceed  to  any  point  short 
of  reversing  or  aborting  the  process  of  differentiation 
within  himself.  Every  individual  is  an  end  in  himself; 
there  are  no  other  ends  for  society;  and  that  society  is 
the  best  which  best  provides  for  the  most  complete  de- 


Mendelism  and  Womanhood  ,89 

velopment  and  self-expression  of  the  individuals  com- 
posing it. 

But  how,  then,  is  the  division  of  labour  necessary 
for  society  to  be  effected,  the  reader  may  ask?  The 
answer  is  that  the  human  species,  like  all  others,  dis- 
plays what  biologists  call  variation — men  and  women 
naturally  differ  within  limits  so  wide  that,  when  we  con- 
sider the  case  of  genius,  we  must  call  them  incalculable, 
illimitable.  The  difference  of  our  faces  or  our  voices 
is  a  mere  symbol  of  differences  no  less  universal  but 
vastly  more  important.  It  is  these  differences,  in 
reality,  that  are  the  cause  of  the  development  of  hu- 
man society  and  of  that  division  of  labour  upon  which 
it  depends.  In  providing  for  the  best  development 
of  all  these  various  individuals  we  at  the  same  time 
provide  for  the  division  of  labour  that  we  need;  nor 
can  we  in  any  other  fashion  provide  so  well.  Thus  we 
shall  attain  a  society  which,  if  less  certainly  stable  than 
that  of  the  bees,  is  what  that  is  not — progressive,  and 
not  merely  static;  and  a  society  which  is  worth  while, 
justified  by  the  lives  and  minds  of  the  individuals  com- 
posing it. 

We  are  not,  then,  to  make  a  factitious  differentia- 
tion of  set  purpose  in  the  interests  of  society  and  to 
the  detriment  of  individuals.  We  are  not  to  take  a 
being  in  whom  Nature  has  differentiated  a  thousand 
parts,  and,  in  effect,  reduce  him,  in  the  interests  of 
others,  to  one  or  two  constituents  and  powers,  thus 
nullifying  the  evolutionary  course.  But  we  shall 
frame  a  society  such  as  the  past  never  witnessed,  and 
we  shall  achieve  a  rate  of  progress  equally  without 


QO  Woman  and  Womanhood 

parallel,  by  consistently  regarding  society  as  existing 
for  the  individual,  and  not  the  individual  for  society, 
and  by  thus  realizing  to  the  full  his  characteristic  pow- 
ers for  himself  and  for  society. 

In  so  far  as  all  this  is  true  it  is  true  of  woman.  It 
has  long  been  asserted  that  woman  is  less  variable  than 
man;  but  the  certainty  of  that  statement  has  lately  lost 
its  edge.  It  is  probably  untrue.  There  is  no  real  rea- 
son to  suppose  that  woman  is  less  complex  or  less 
variable  than  man.  She  has  the  same  title  as  he  has 
to  those  conditions  in  which  her  particular  characters, 
whatever  they  be,  shall  find  their  most  complete  and 
fruitful  development.  There  is  no  more  a  single  ideal 
type  of  woman  than  there  is  a  single  ideal  type  of  man. 
It  takes  all  sorts  even  to  make  a  sex.  It  has  been  in 
the  past,  and  always  must  be,  a  piece  of  gross  pre- 
sumption on  man's  part  to  say  to  woman,  "  Thus  shalt 
thou  be,  and  no  other."  Whom  Nature  has  made 
different,  man  has  no  business  to  make  or  even  to  de- 
sire similar.  The  world  wants  all  the  powers  of  all 
the  individuals  of  either  sex.  On  the  other  hand,  no 
good  can  come  of  the  attempt  to  distort  the  develop- 
ment of  those  powers  or  to  seek  conformity  to  any 
type.  Much  of  the  evil  of  the  past  has  arisen  from 
the  limitation  of  woman  to  practically  one  profession. 
Even  should  it  be  incomparably  the  best,  in  general, 
it  is  by  no  means  necessarily  the  best,  or  even  good 
at  all,  for  every  individual.  Men  are  to  be  heard  say- 
ing, "  A  woman  ought  to  be  a  wife  and  mother."  It 
is,  perhaps,  the  main  argument  of  this  book  that,  for 
most  women,  this  is  the  sphere  in  which  their  charac- 


Mendelism  and  Womanhood  QI 

teristic  potencies  will  find  best  and  most  useful  expres- 
sion both  for  self  and  others;  but  that  is  very  different 
from  saying  that  every  woman  ought  to  be  a  mother, 
or  that  no  woman  ought  to  be  a  surgeon.  We  may 
prefer  the  maternal  to  the  surgical  type,  and  there  may 
be  good  reason  for  our  preference;  but  the  surgeon 
may  be  very  useful,  and,  useful  or  not,  the  question  is 
not  one  of  ought.  Thoughtful  people  should  know 
better  than  to  make  this  constant  confusion  between 
what  ought  to  be  and  what  is.  Let  us  hold  to  our 
ideals,  let  us  by  all  means  have  our  scale  of  values;  but 
the  first  question  in  such  a  case  as  this  is  as  to  what  is. 
In  point  of  fact  all  women  are  not  of  the  same  type; 
and  our  expression  of  what  ought  to  be  is  none  other 
than  the  passing  of  a  censure  upon  Nature  for  her 
deeds.  We  may  know  better  than  she,  or,  as  has  hap- 
pened, we  may  know  worse. 


VII 

BEFORE   WOMANHOOD 

WE  have  seen  that  the  sex  of  the  individual  is  al- 
ready determined  as  early  as  any  other  of  his  or  her 
characters,  though  the  realization  of  the  potentialities 
of  that  sex  may  be  much  modified  by  nurture,  as  in  the 
contrasted  cases  of  the  queen  bee  and  the  worker  bee. 
Children,  then,  are  already  of  one  sex  or  other,  and 
though  our  business  in  the  present  volume  is  not  child- 
hood of  either  sex,  a  few  points  are  worth  noting  be- 
fore we  take  up  the  consideration  of  the  individual  at 
the  period  when  the  distinctive  characteristics  of  sex 
make  their  effective  appearance. 

Despite  the  abundance  of  the  material  and  the  op- 
portunities for  observation,  we  are  at  present  without 
decisive  evidence  as  to  the  distinctiveness  of  sex  in  any 
effective  way  during  childhood.  Here,  as  elsewhere, 
we  have  to  guard  ourselves  against  the  influences  of 
nurture  in  the  widest  sense  of  the  word;  as  when,  to 
take  an  extreme  case,  we  distinguish  between  the  boy 
and  the  girl  because  the  hair  of  the  one  is  cut  and  of 
the  other  is  not.  The  natural,  as  distinguished  from 
the  nurtural,  distinctions  at  this  period  are  probably 
much  fewer  than  is  supposed.  It  is  asserted — to  take 
physical  characters  first — that  the  girl  of  ten  gives 

92 


Before  Womanhood  93 

out  in  breathing  considerably  less  carbonic  acid  than 
her  brother  of  the  same  age,  thus  foreshadowing  the 
difference  between  the  sexes  which  is  recognized  in 
later  years.  If  this  fact  be  critically  established  it  is 
of  very  great  interest,  showing  that  the  sex  distinction 
effectively  makes  its  presence  felt  in  the  most  essential 
processes  of  the  body.  But  we  should  require  to  be 
satisfied  that  the  observations  were  sufficiently  numer- 
ous, and  were  made  under  absolutely  equal  conditions, 
and  with  due  allowance  for  difference  in  body-weight. 
They  would  be  the  more  credible  if  it  were  also  shown 
that  the  number  of  the  red  blood  corpuscles  were 
smaller  in  girls  than  in  boys  in  parallel  with  the  differ- 
ence between  the  sexes  in  later  years. 

Children  of  both  sexes  have  fewer  red  blood  cor- 
puscles in  a  given  quantity  of  blood  and  a  smaller  pro- 
portion of  the  red  colouring  matter,  or  haemoglobin, 
than  adults.  Women  have  very  definitely  fewer  red 
blood  corpuscles  than  men,  and  a  smaller  proportion 
of  haemoglobin,  and  their  blood  is  more  watery.  Ac- 
cording to  one  authority  this  difference  in  the  haemo- 
globin can  be  observed  from  the  ages  of  eleven  to  fifty, 
but  not  before.  The  specific  gravity  of  the  blood  is 
found  to  be  the  same  in  both  sexes  before  the  fifteenth 
year.  Thereafter,  that  of  the  boy's  blood  rises,  and 
between  seventeen  and  forty-five  is  definitely  higher 
than  in  women  of  the  corresponding  age.  It  thus 
seems  quite  clear  that,  as  we  should  expect,  these  dif- 
ferences in  the  blood,  which  are  certainly,  as  Dr. 
Havelock  Ellis  says,  fundamental,  make  their  appear- 
ance definitely  at  puberty — a  fact  which  supports  the 


94  Woman  and  Womanhood 

i 

view  that  fundamental  differences  of  practical  impor- 
tance between  the  two  sexes  before  that  age  are  not  to 
be  found.  Careful  comparative  study  of  the  pulse  of 
children  is  hitherto  somewhat  inconclusive,  though  it 
is  well  known  that  the  pulse  is  more  rapid  in  women 
than  in  men. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  seems  clear  as  regards  respi- 
ration that  as  early  as  the  age  of  twelve  there  are  defi- 
nite differences  between  the  sexes.  Several  thousands 
of  American  school  children  were  examined,  and  be- 
tween the  ages  of  six  and  nineteen  the  boys  were 
throughout  superior  in  lung  capacity.  The  girls  had 
almost  reached  their  maximum  capacity  at  the  age  of 
twelve,  and  thereafter  the  difference,  till  then  slight, 
rapidly  increased.*  It  appears  that  from  eight  to  fif- 
teen years  of  age  a  boy  burns  more  carbon  than  a  girl, 
the  difference,  however,  being  not  great.  But  at  pu- 
berty the  boy  proceeds  to  consume  very  nearly  twice 
as  much  carbon  per  hour  as  his  sister. 

Perhaps  the  matter  need  not  be  pursued  further. 
It  is  sufficient  for  us  to  recognize  that  puberty  is  really 
the  critical  time,  and  that  in  the  consideration  of 
womanhood  we  may,  on  the  whole,  be  justified  in  look- 
ing upon  the  problem  of  the  girl  before  that  age  as 
almost  identical  with  her  brother's.  Yet  we  must  be 
reasonably  cautious,  since  our  knowledge  is  small,  and 
there  is  some  by  no  means  negligible  evidence  of  fun- 
damental physiological  differences  between  the  sexes 
before  puberty,  relatively  slight  though  these  may  be. 

*  Here,  as  in  many  other  caies,  I  am  indebted  to  that  invaluable  repertory  of  facts, 
Dr.  Havelock  Ellis's  "Man  and  Woman. " 


Before  Womanhood  95 

Therefore,  though  on  the  whole  we  need  make  few 
distinctions  between  the  girl  and  her  brother,  and 
though  we  are  doubtless  wrong  in  the  magnitude  of  the 
practical  distinctions  which  we  have  often  made  hith- 
erto, yet  we  must  remember  that  these  are  going  to  be 
different  beings,  and  that  the  main  principles  which 
determine  our  nurture  of  womanhood  may  be  recalled 
when  we  are  doubtful  as  to  practice  in  the  care  of  the 
girl  child. 

Physiological  distinctions,  we  have  seen,  probably 
exist  during  these  early  years,  but  are  of  less  impor- 
tance than  we  sometimes  have  attached  to  them,  and 
of  no  importance  at  all  compared  with  what  is  to  come. 
Psychological  distinctions,  we  may  believe,  are  still 
more  dubious.  For  instance,  it  is  generally  believed 
that  the  parental  instinct  shows  itself  much  more  mark- 
edly in  girls  than  in  boys,  and  the  commonly  observed 
history  of  the  liking  for  dolls  is  quoted  in  this  connec- 
tion. As  this  instinct  bears  so  profoundly  upon  the 
later  life  of  the  individual,  and  as  we  may  reasonably 
suppose  the  child  to  be  the  mother  of  the  woman  as 
well  as  the  father  of  the  man,  the  matter  is  worth  look- 
ing at  a  little  further. 

But,  in  the  first  place,  it  has  been  asserted  that  the 
doll  instinct  has  really  nothing  whatever  to  do  with 
the  parental  instinct  in  either  sex.  Psychologists, 
whom  one  suspects  of  being  bachelors,  tell  us  that  what 
we  really  observe  here  is  the  instinct  of  acquisition:  it 
really  does  not  matter  what  we  give  the  child,  though 
it  so  happens  that  we  very  commonly  present  it  with 
dolls;  it  is  the  lust  of  possession  that  we  satisfy,  and 


96  Woman  and  Womanhood 

in  point  of  fact  one  thing  will  satisfy  it  as  well  as  an- 
other. 

The  evidence  against  this  view  is  quite  overwhelm- 
ing. We  might  quote  the  universal  distribution  of 
dolls  in  place  and  in  time  as  revealed  by  anthropology. 
Wherever  there  is  mankind  there  are  dolls,  whether  in 
Mayfair  or  in  Whitechapel,  Japan,  the  South  Sea  Isl- 
ands, Ancient  Egypt  or  Mexico.  Further,  there  is  the 
observed  behaviour  of  the  child,  opportunities  for 
which  have  presumably  been  denied  to  the  psycholo- 
gists whose  opinion  has  been  quoted.  The  only  ob- 
jection to  the  theory  that  the  child  will  be  content  with 
the  possession  of  anything  else  as  well  as  of  a  doll  is 
the  circumstance  that  the  child  is  not  so  content,  but 
asks  for  a  doll  for  choice,  and  will  lavish  upon  any 
doll,  however  diagrammatic,  an  amount  of  love  and 
care  which  no  other  toy  will  ever  obtain.  Further,  if 
the  child  has  opportunities  for  playing  with  a  real 
baby,  it  will  be  perfectly  evident,  even  to  the  bachelor 
psychologist,  that  the  doll  was  the  vicarious  substitute 
for  the  real  thing. 

But  now,  what  as  to  the  comparative  strength  of  this 
instinct  in  the  two  sexes?  Here  we  must  not  be  de- 
ceived by  the  effects  of  nurture,  environment,  or  educa- 
tion. Though  finding,  as  we  do,  that  the  little  boy 
enjoys  playing  with  his  dolls  as  his  sister  does,  we  re- 
frain from  buying  dolls  for  him,  and  may  indeed,  un- 
derestimating the  importance  of  human  fatherhood, 
declare  that  dolls  are  beneath  the  dignity  of  a  boy 
though  good  enough  for  his  sister.  He,  destined 
rather  for  the  business  of  destroying  life,  so  much 
more  glorious  than  saving  it,  must  learn  to  play  with 


Before  Womanhood  97 

soldiers.  In  this  fashion  we  at  least  deprive  ourselves 
of  any  opportunity  of  critically  comparing  the  strength 
and  the  history  of  the  instinct  in  the  two  sexes. 

There  is  good  reason  to  suppose  that  the  distinc- 
tion between  the  psychology  of  the  boy  and  that  of  the 
girl  in  these  early  years  is  very  small.  If  boys  are  not 
discouraged  they  will  play  with  dolls  for  choice,  just  as 
their  sisters  do,  and  may  be  just  as  charming  with 
younger  brothers  or  sisters.  Nor  is  it  by  any  means 
certain  that  this  misleading  of  ourselves  is  the  worst 
consequence  of  the  common  practice.  It  is  possible 
that  we  lose  opportunities  for  the  inculcation  of  ideals 
which  are  of  the  highest  value  to  the  individual  and 
the  race.  I  am  reminded  of  the  true  story  of  a  small 
boy,  well  brought  up,  who,  being  jeered  at  in  the  street 
by  bigger  boys  because  he  was  carrying  a  doll,  turned 
upon  his  critics  with  the  admirable  retort — slightly 
wanting  in  charity,  let  us  hope,  but  none  the  less  perti- 
nent— "  None  of  you  will  ever  be  a  good  father." 

Thus,  on  the  whole,  one  is  inclined  to  suppose  that 
the  general  resemblance  in  facial  appearance,  bodily 
contour,  and  interests  which  we  observe  in  children  of 
the  two  sexes,  indicates  that  deeper  distinctions  are 
latent  rather  than  active.  This  is  much  more  than  an 
academic  question,  for  if  our  subject  in  the  present 
volume  were  the  care  of  childhood,  it  is  plain  that  we 
should  have  to  base  upon  our  answer  to  this  question 
our  treatment  of  boy  and  girl  respectively.  Probably 
we  are  on  the  whole  correct  in  instituting  no  deep  dis- 
tinction of  any  kind  in  the  nurture,  either  physical  or 
mental,  of  children  during  their  early  years.  Nor  can 
there  be  any  doubt,  at  least  so  far,  as  to  the  Tightness 


98  Woman  and  Womanhood 

of  educating  them  together,  and  allowing  them  to 
compete,  in  so  far  as  we  allow  competition  at  all, 
freely  both  in  work  and  in  games. 

However  this  may  be,  there  comes  at  an  age  which 
varies  somewhat  in  different  races  and  individuals,  a 
period  critical  to  both  sexes,  in  which  the  factors  of 
sex  differentiation,  hitherto  more  or  less  latent,  begin 
conspicuously  to  assert  themselves.  Here,  plainly,  is 
the  dawn  of  womanhood,  and  here,  in  our  considera- 
tion of  woman  the  individual,  we  must  make  a  start. 
If  we  recall  the  tentative  Mendelian  analysis  already 
referred  to,  we  may  suppose  that  the  "  factor  "  for 
womanhood  begins  to  assert  itself,  at  any  rate  in  effec- 
tive degree,  at  this  period  of  puberty,  when  a  girl  be- 
comes a  woman;  and  that  its  most  effective  reign  is 
over  at  the  much  later  crisis  which  we  call  the  change 
of  life  or  climacteric.  In  other  words,  though  sex  is 
determined  from  the  first,  and  though  certain  of  its 
distinctive  characters  remain  to  the  end,  we  may  say 
that  our  study  of  womanhood  is  practically  concerned 
with  the  years  between  twelve  or  thirteen,  and  forty- 
five  or  fifty.  Before  this  period,  as  we  have  sug- 
gested,  the  distinction  between  the  sexes  is  of  no  prac- 
tical importance  so  far  as  regimen  and  education  are 
concerned.  After  this  period  also  it  is  probable  that 
the  difference  between  the  two  sexes  is  diminished,  and 
would  be  still  more  evidently  diminished  were  it  not 
for  the  effects  which  different  experience  has  perma- 
nently wrought  in  the  memory.  We  begin  our  prac- 
tical study,  then,  of  woman  the  individual,  with  the 
young  girl  at  the  age  of  puberty;  and  we  must  concern 
ourselves  first  with  the  care  of  her  body. 


VIII 

THE   PHYSICAL   TRAINING   OF   GIRLS 

WE  shall  certainly  not  reach  right  conclusions  about 
the  physical  training  of  girls  unless  we  rightly  under- 
stand what  physical  training  does  and  does  not  effect, 
and  what  we  desire  it  should  effect.  This  applies  to 
all  education — that  our  aim  be  defined,  that  we  shall 
know  "  what  it  is  we  are  after,"  and  it  applies  pre- 
eminently to  the  education,  both  physical  and  mental, 
of  girls. 

Now  it  will  be  granted,  in  the  first  place,  that  by 
physical  training — whether  in  the  form  of  gymnastics 
or  games  or  what  not — we  desire  to  produce  a 
healthier  and  more  perfectly  developed  body.  Some 
will  add  a  stronger  body,  but  as  this  term  has  two 
meanings  constantly  confused,  it  really  contains  the 
crux  of  the  question.  Stronger  may  mean  stronger  in 
the  sense  of  resistance  to  disease  or  fatigue  or  strain 
of  any  kind,  or  it  may  mean  stronger  in  the  sense  of 
the  capacity  to  perform  feats  of  strength.  It  being 
commonly  assumed  that  vitality  and  muscularity  are 
identical,  this  distinction  is,  on  that  assumption,  merely 
academic  and  trivial.  But  as  muscularity  and  vitality 
are  not  identical,  and  have  indeed  very  little  to  do  with 
each  other,  and  as  muscularity  may  even  in  certain  con- 
ditions prejudice  vitality,  the  distinction  is  not  aca- 

99 


IOO  Woman  and  Womanhood 

demic  but  all-important.  I  freely  assert  that  it  is  sub- 
stantially ignored  by  those  who  concern  themselves 
with  physical  training,  whether  of  boys  or  girls  or  re- 
cruits, all  the  world  over. 

Though  a  woman  is  naturally  less  muscular  than  a 
man,  her  vitality  is  higher.  This  seems  to  be  a  gen- 
eral truth  of  all  female  organisms.  The  evidence  is 
of  many  orders.  Thus,  to  begin  with,  women  live 
longer,  on  the  average,  than  men  do.  In  the  light  of 
our  modern  knowledge  of  alcohol,  however,  we  cannot 
regard  this  fact  by  itself  as  conclusive,  since  the  aver- 
age age  attained  by  men  is  undoubtedly  considerably 
lowered  by  alcohol,  and  of  course  to  a  much  greater 
extent  than  obtains  in  the  case  of  women.  But  women 
recover  better  from  poisoning,  such  as  occurs  in  infec- 
tious disease,  and  they  are  far  more  tolerant  of  loss 
of  blood,  as  indeed  they  have  to  be.  The  same  ap- 
plies to  loss  of  sleep  or  food,  and  to  injurious  influ- 
ences generally.  These  indisputable  proofs  of  supe- 
rior vitality  co-exist  with  much  inferior  muscularity, 
and  are  conclusive  on  the  point.  If  men  would  make 
observations  among  themselves  and  think  for  a  mo- 
ment, they  would  soon  perceive  how  foolish  they  are 
in  crediting  the  assumptions  of  the  strong  men  who  so 
successfully  persuade  the  public  that  the  great  thing  is 
for  a  man  to  have  big  muscles.  Men,  muscular  by 
nature,  and  still  more  so  by  nurture,  are  often  in  point 
of  fact  really  weak  compared  with  much  less  muscular 
men  who,  though  they  cannot  put  forth  so  much  me- 
chanical energy  at  a  given  moment,  can  yet  endure  fifty 
times  the  fatigue  or  stress  or  poisoning  of  any  order. 


The  Physical  Training  of  Girls  IOI 

From  the  point  of  view  of  any  sound  physiology  there 
is  no  comparison  at  all  between  the  absurd  strong  man 
and  the  slight  Marathon  runner  of  small  muscles  but 
splendid  vitality.  If  we  are  to  test  vitality  in  muscu- 
lar terms  at  all — that  in  itself  being  a  quite  indefensi- 
ble assumption — we  must  do  so  in  terms  of  endurance, 
and  not  in  terms  of  horse  power  or  ass  power,  at  any 
given  moment. 

If,  then,  vitality  be  our  aim  in  physical  training,  and 
not  muscularity  as  such,  nor  in  any  degree  except  in  so 
far  as  it  serves  vitality,  it  is  plain  that  we  shall  to  some 
extent  reconsider  our  methods. 

Pre-eminently  will  this  apply  to  the  girl.  Just  be- 
cause she  is  now  becoming  a  woman,  her  vital  energies 
are  in  no  small  degree  pledged  for  special  purposes  of 
the  highest  importance,  from  which  we  cannot  possibly 
divert  them  if  we  desire  that  she  shall  indeed  become  a 
woman.  Thus,  though  muscular  exercise  of  any  kind 
is  certainly  not  to  be  condemned,  we  must  be  cautious; 
for,  in  the  first  place,  muscular  exercise  is  no  end  in  it- 
self; in  the  second,  the  production  of  big  muscles  by 
exercise  is  no  end  in  itself;  and  in  the  third  place,  all 
muscular  exercise  is  expenditure  of  energy  in  those  out- 
ward directions  which  are  not  characteristic  of  woman- 
hood, and  which  must  always  be  subordinated  to  those 
interests  that  are. 

At  this  period  of  which  we  are  speaking  there  are 
constructions  of  the  most  important  kind  going  on  in 
the  girl's  body,  compared  with  which  the  construction 
of  additional  muscular  tissue  is  of  much  less  than  no 
importance.  These  building-up  processes  are,  we 


IO2  Woman  and  Womanhood 

know,  characteristic  of  the  woman.  Their  right  in- 
ception is  a  matter  of  the  greatest  importance.  They 
involve  the  actual  accumulation  of  food  material  and 
the  building  up  of  it  into  gland  cells  and  other  highly 
organized  tissues  upon  which  complete  womanhood 
depends.  These  all-important  concerns  are  preju- 
diced by  excessive  external  expenditure,  and  thus  the 
care  necessary  for  the  boy  at  puberty  is  a  thousand- 
fold more  necessary  for  the  girl,  though  the  obvious 
changes  in  her  appearance  and  her  voice  may  be  much 
less  marked.  Greater  and  more  costly  constructions 
are  afoot  in  her  case  than  her  brother's,  grossly  though 
these  facts  are  at  present  ignored  in  what  we  are 
pleased  to  call  education,  both  physical  and  mental. 

If  we  are  to  decide  what  kinds  of  physical  exercise 
will  be  most  desirable,  we  must  come  to  some  conclu- 
sion as  to  what  is  the  object  of  our  labours,  it  being 
granted  that  muscular  activity  and  the  making  of  big 
muscles  are  not  ends  in  themselves.  The  answer  to 
this  question  is  to  be  found  in  what  I  have  elsewhere 
called  the  new  asceticism. 

In  tracing  the  history  of  animal  progress,  we  find 
that  it  coincides  with  and  has  consisted  in  the  emer- 
gence of  the  psychical  and  its  predominance  over  the 
physical.  The  history  of  progress  is  the  history  of 
the  evolving  nervous  system.  Muscles  are  the  ser- 
vants of  the  nervous  system.  In  man  progress  has 
reached  its  highest  phase  in  that  the  nervous  system, 
which  at  first  was  merely  a  servant  of  the  body,  has 
become  the  essential  thing,  so  that  the  brain  is  the  man. 
The  old  asceticism  was  at  least  right  in  regarding  the 


The  Physical  Training  of  Girls  103 

soul  as  all-important,  though  it  was  utterly  wrong  in 
considering  the  interests  of  soul  and  body  to  be  en- 
tirely antagonistic,  and  in  teaching  that  for  the  eleva- 
tion of  the  soul  we  must  outrage,  mutilate,  and  deny 
the  body.  The  new  asceticism  accepts  the  first  prin- 
ciple of  the  old,  but  bases  its  practice  on  a  truer  con- 
ception of  the  relations  between  mind  and  body.  The 
greater  part  of  the  body  is  composed  of  muscles,  and 
it  is  with  muscles  that  physical  training  is  concerned. 
On  our  principles,  then,  any  system  of  physical  training 
worth  a  straw  must  have  primary  reference  to  the 
brain,  since  the  body,  including  the  muscles,  is  only  the 
servant  of  the  ego  or  self  which  resides  in  the  brain. 
For  this  reason,  if  for  no  other,  the  development  of 
muscle  as  an  end  in  itself  is  beneath  human  dignity; 
the  value  of  a  muscle  lies  not  in  its  size  or  strength,  but 
in  its  capacity  to  be  a  useful  and  skilful  agent  of  the 
brain. 

The  exceptions  to  this  rule  are  furnished  by  pre- 
cisely those  muscles  which  the  usual  forms  of  physical 
training  and  gymnastics  ignore  and  subordinate  to  the 
development  of  the  muscles  of  the  limbs.  It  does 
matter  very  much  that  man  or  woman  shall  have  the 
heart,  which  is  the  most  important  muscle  in  the  body, 
and  the  muscles  of  respiration  in  good  order.  These 
muscles  are  directly  necessary  for  life,  and  are  there- 
fore servants  of  the  brain,  even  though  they  are  not  in 
any  appreciable  degree  the  direct  agents  of  its  pur- 
poses. Any  kind  of  physical  exercise  then  which, 
while  developing  the  muscles  of  the  arm,  for  instance, 
throws  undue  strain  upon  the  heart  or  involves  the  fixa- 


104  Woman  and  Womanhood 

tion  of  the  chest  for  a  considerable  period — as  occurs 
in  various  feats  of  strength,  whether  with  weights  or 
upon  bars  or  the  like — is  ipso  facto  to  be  condemned. 
It  is  now  recognized  that  in  the  training  of  soldiers 
much  harm  is  often  done  in  this  way  to  the  essential 
muscles,  while  others,  more  conspicuous  but  of  rela- 
tively no  importance,  are  being  developed. 

But  before  we  consider  in  detail  what  kinds  of  ex- 
ercise and  with  what  accompaniment  may  be  permitted 
for  the  muscles  of  the  limbs,  it  is  well  that  we  should 
agree  upon  some  method  of  deciding  as  to  the  quantity 
of  such  exercise.  We  cannot  go  by  such  measures  as 
hours  per  week,  for  individuals  vary.  We  must  find 
some  criterion  which  will  guide  us  for  each  individual. 
The  pendulum  has  swung  in  this  regard  from  one  ex- 
treme to  another.  Both  extremes  were  adopted  and 
permitted  because  in  our  guidance  of  girlhood  we  ig- 
nored facts  of  physiology,  and,  notably,  because  edu- 
cators had  not  a  clear  conception  of  what  it  was  that 
they  desired  to  attain.  By  the  consent  of  all  who 
have  given  any  attention  to  the  subject,  the  great  edu- 
cational reformer  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  Her- 
bert Spencer,  and  not  the  least  of  his  services  was  his 
liberation  of  girls  from  the  extraordinary  regimen  of 
fifty  years  ago.  There  needs  no  excuse  for  a  long 
quotation  from  the  volume  in  which,  just  short  of  half 
a  century  ago,  Herbert  Spencer  discussed  this  matter. 
Thereafter  we  may  observe  how  the  pendulum  has 
swung  to  the  other  extreme: — 

"  To  the  importance  of  bodily  exercise  most  people  are  in 
some  degree  awake.  Perhaps  less  needs  saying  on  this  requi- 


The  Physical  Training  of  Girls  105 

site  of  physical  education  than  on  most  others;  at  any  rate,  in 
so  far  as  boys  are  concerned.  Public  schools  and  private 
schools  alike  furnish  tolerably  adequate  play-grounds;  and 
there  is  usually  a  fair  share  of  time  for  out-door  games,  and  a 
recognition  of  them  as  needful.  In  this,  if  in  no  other  direc- 
tion, it  seems  admitted  that  the  promptings  of  boyish  instinct 
may  advantageously  be  followed;  and,  indeed,  in  the  modern 
practice  of  breaking  the  prolonged  morning's  and  afternoon's 
lessons  by  a  few  minutes'  open-air  recreation,  we  see  an  in- 
creasing tendency  to  conform  school-regulations  to  the  bodily 
sensations  of  the  pupils.  Here,  then,  little  need  be  said  in 
the  way  of  expostulation  or  suggestion. 

"  But  we  have  been  obliged  to  qualify  this  admission  by 
inserting  the  clause  in  so  far  as  boys  are  concerned.  Un- 
fortunately, the  fact  is  quite  otherwise  with  girls.  It  chances, 
somewhat  strangely,  that  we  have  daily  'opportunity  of  draw- 
ing a  comparison.  We  have  both  a  boys'  school  and  a  girls' 
school  within  view;  and  the  contrast  between  them  is  remark- 
able. In  the  one  case  nearly  the  whole  of  a  large  garden  is 
turned  into  an  open,  gravelled  space,  affording  ample  scope 
for  games,  and  supplied  with  poles  and  horizontal  bars  for 
gymnastic  exercises.  Every  day  before  breakfast,  again  to- 
wards eleven  o'clock,  again  at  mid-day,  again  in  the  after- 
noon, and  once  more  after  school  is  over,  the  neighbourhood 
is  awakened  by  a  chorus  of  shouts  and  laughter  as  the  boys 
rush  out  to  play;  and  for  as  long  as  they  remain,  both  eyes 
and  ears  give  proof  that  they  are  absorbed  in  that  enjoyable 
activity  which  makes  the  pulse  bound  and  ensures  the  health- 
ful activity  of  every  organ.  How  unlike  is  the  picture  offered 
by  the  Establishment  for  Young  Ladies !  Until  the  fact  was 
pointed  out,  we  actually  did  not  know  that  we  had  a  girls' 
school  as  close  to  us  as  the  school  for  boys.  The  garden, 
equally  large  with  the  other,  affords  no  sign  whatever  of  any 
provision  for  juvenile  recreation;  but  is  entirely  laid  out  with 


Io6  Woman  and  Womanhood 

prim  grass-plots,  gravel-walks,  shrubs,  and  flowers,  after  the 
usual  suburban  style.  During  five  months  we  have  not  once 
had  our  attention  drawn  to  the  premises  by  a  shout  or  a  laugh. 
Occasionally  girls  may  be  observed  sauntering  along  the  paths 
with  their  lesson-books  in  their  hands,  or  else  walking  arm- 
in-arm.  Once,  indeed,  we  saw  one  chase  another  round  the 
garden;  but,  with  this  exception,  nothing  like  vigorous  ex- 
ertion has  been  visible. 

"Why  this  astonishing  difference?  Is  it  that  the  consti- 
tution of  a  girl  differs  so  entirely  from  that  of  a  boy  as  not 
to  need  these  active  exercises?  Is  it  that  a  girl  has  none  of 
the  promptings  to  vociferous  play  by  which  boys  are  impelled  ? 
Or  is  it  that,  while  in  boys  these  promptings  are  to  be  re- 
garded as  stimuli  to  a  bodily  activity  without  which  there 
cannot  be  adequate  development,  to  their  sisters  Nature  has 
given  them  for  no  purpose  whatever — unless  it  be  for  the 
vexation  of  schoolmistresses?  Perhaps,  however,  we  mistake 
the  aim  of  those  who  train  the  gentler  sex.  We  have  a  vague 
suspicion  that  to  produce  a  robust  physique  is  thought  un- 
desirable; that  rude  health  and  abundant  vigour  are  consid- 
ered somewhat  plebeian;  that  a  certain  delicacy,  a  strength 
not  competent  to  more  than  a  mile  or  two's  walk,  an  appetite 
fastidious  and  easily  satisfied,  joined  with  that  timidity  which 
commonly  accompanies  feebleness,  are  held  more  lady-like. 
We  do  not  expect  that  any  would  distinctly  avow  this ;  but  we 
fancy  the  governess-mind  is  haunted  by  an  ideal  young  lady 
bearing  not  a  little  resemblance  to  this  type.  If  so,  it  must 
be  admitted  that  the  established  system  is  admirably  calcu- 
lated to  realize  this  ideal.  But  to  suppose  that  such  is  the 
ideal  of  the  opposite  sex  is  a  profound  mistake.  That  men 
are  not  commonly  drawn  towards  masculine  women  is  doubt- 
less true.  That  such  relative  weakness  as  asks  the  protection 
of  superior  strength  is  an  element  of  attraction  we  quite  ad- 
mit. But  the  difference  thus  responded  to  by  the  feelings 


The  Physical  Training  of  Girls  107 

of  men  is  the  natural,  pre-established  difference,  which  will 
assert  itself  without  artificial  appliances.  And  when,  by  arti- 
ficial appliances,  the  degree  of  this  difference  is  increased, 
it  becomes  an  element  of  repulsion  rather  than  of  attraction. 

" '  Then  girls  should  be  allowed  to  run  wild — to  become  as 
rude  as  boys,  and  grow  up  into  romps  and  hoydens ! '  exclaims 
some  defender  of  the  proprieties.  This,  we  presume,  is  the 
ever-present  dread  of  schoolmistresses.  It  appears,  on  in- 
quiry, that  at  Establishments  for  Young  Ladies  noisy  play  like 
that  daily  indulged  in  by  boys  is  a  punishable  offence;  and 
we  infer  that  it  is  forbidden,  lest  unladylike  habits  should  be 
formed.  The  fear  is  quite  groundless,  however.  For  if  the 
sportive  activity  allowed  to  boys  does  not  prevent  them  from 
growing  up  into  gentlemen,  why  should  a  like  sportive  activity 
prevent  girls  from  growing  up  into  ladies?  Rough  as  may 
have  been  their  play-ground  frolics,  youths  who  have  left 
school  do  not  indulge  in  leap-frog  in  the  street,  or  marbles 
in  the  drawing-room.  Abandoning  their  jackets,  they  aban- 
don at  the  same  time  boyish  games,  and  display  an  anxiety — 
often  a  ludicrous  anxiety — to  avoid  whatever  is  not  manly. 
If  now,  on  arriving  at  the  due  age,  this  feeling  of  masculine 
dignity  puts  so  efficient  a  restraint  on  the  sports  of  boyhood, 
will  not  the  feeling  of  feminine  modesty,  gradually  strength- 
ening as  maturity  is  approached,  put  an  efficient  restraint  on 
the  like  sports  of  girlhood?  Have  not  women  even  a  greater 
regard  for  appearances  than  men?  and  will  there  not  conse- 
quently arise  in  them  even  a  stronger  check  to  whatever  is 
rough  or  boisterous  ?  How  absurd  is  the  supposition  that  the 
womanly  instincts  would  not  assert  themselves  but  for  the 
rigorous  discipline  of  schoolmistresses! 

"  In  this,  as  in  other  cases,  to  remedy  the  evils  of  one  arti- 
ficiality, another  artificiality  has  been  introduced.  The  nat- 
ural, spontaneous  exercise  having  been  forbidden,  and  the 
bad  consequences  of  no  exercise  having  become  conspicuous, 


Io8  Woman  and  Womanhood 

there  has  been  adopted  a  system  of  factitious  exercise — gym- 
nastics. That  this  is  better  than  nothing  we  admit,  but  that 
it  is  an  adequate  substitute  for  play  we  deny." 

The  pendulum  has  indeed  swung  across  from  those 
days  to  these  of  the  hockey-girl,  not  to  mention  the 
girl  who  throws  a  cricket-ball  and  bowls  very  credit- 
ably overhand.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  state 
of  things  is  vastly  better  than  that  was,  yet,  as  one  has 
endeavoured  to  insist,  this  also  has  its  risks.  Apart 
from  the  question  as  to  the  particular  game  or  form 
of  exercise,  we  must  be  guided  in  each  case  by  the  first 
signs  of  anything  approaching  undue  strain.  We  must 
look  out  for  lack  of  energy,  for  a  lessening  of  joy  in 
the  exercise  and  of  spontaneous  desire  therefor.  Fa- 
tigue that  interferes  with  appetite,  digestion,  or  sleep 
is  utterly  to  be  condemned. 

The  Specific  Criterion. — Such  criteria  apply,  of 
course,  equally  to  either  sex,  though  it  is  more  impor- 
tant to  be  on  the  look-out  for  them  in  the  case  of  the 
developing  girl.  But  in  her  case  there  is  another 
criterion,  which  is  of  special  importance,  because  it  con- 
cerns not  only  her  development  as  an  individual,  but 
her  development  as  a  woman.  That  criterion  is  fur- 
nished us  by  the  menstrual  function.  It  may  safely  be 
said  that  that  exercise  is  excessive  and  must  be  imme- 
diately curtailed  which  leads  to  the  diminution  of  this 
function,  much  more  to  its  disappearance.  I  would, 
indeed,  urge  this  as  a  test  of  the  highest  importance,  al- 
ways applicable  to  whatever  circumstances.  Defect 
in  this  respect  should  never  be  looked  upon  lightly;  it 
may,  indeed,  be  a  conservative  process,  as  in  cases  of 


The  Physical  Training  of  Girls  109 

anaemia,  but  the  cause  which  produces  such  an  effect 
is  always  to  be  combated. 

The  Kinds  of  Exercise. — Given,  then,  this  most  im- 
portant test  as  to  the  quantity  of  exercise  of  whatever 
kind — a  test  which  indeed  applies  no  less  to  mental 
exercise — we  may  pass  on  to  consider  the  kinds  of  ex- 
ercise best  suited  for  the  girl,  it  being  premised  that 
any  one  of  them,  however  good  in  itself  and  in  mod- 
eration, is  capable  of  being  pursued  to  excess,  and  that 
the  danger  of  this  is  specially  noticeable  in  the  case  of 
the  girl,  because,  as  we  have  seen,  the  effects  of  excess 
are  more  serious  in  her  case,  and  also  because  girls  are 
very  apt  to  take  things  up  with  immense  keenness,  and 
sometimes,  in  even  greater  degree  than  their  brothers, 
to  devote  themselves  too  much  to  the  competitive  as- 
pect of  things.  The  girl  should  certainly  be  content 
to  play  a  game  for  the  joy  of  it,  and  be  scarcely  less 
happy  to  lose  than  to  win  if  her  side  has  played  the 
game  and  made  a  good  fight  of  it.  The  competitive 
element  is  excessive  in  almost  all  sports  to-day,  and  it 
is  especially  to  be  deplored  in  the  games  of  girls,  who 
are  so  liable  to  overstrain  and  so  apt  to  take  trifles  to 
heart. 

In  what  has  been  already  said  and  in  the  end  of  our 
quotation  from  Herbert  Spencer,  it  will  be  evident  that 
purposeful  games  rather  than  exercises  are  to  be  com- 
mended. There  is  indeed  no  comparison  for  a  mo- 
ment possible  between  Nature's  method  of  exercise, 
which  is  obtained  through  play,  and  the  ridiculous  and 
empty  parodies  of  it  which  men  invent.  The  truth  is 
that  Nature  is  aiming  at  one  thing,  and  man  at  an- 


IIO  Woman  and  Womanhood 

other.  Man's  aim,  for  reasons  already  exploded,  is 
the  acquirement  of  strength;  Nature's  is  the  acquire- 
ment of  skill.  It  is  really  nervous  development  that 
Nature  is  interested  in  when  she  appears  to  be  persuad- 
ing the  young  thing  to  exercise  its  muscles.  Man  no- 
tices only  the  muscular  contractions  involved,  thinks 
he  can  improve  upon  Nature,  and  invents  absurdities 
like  dumb-bells. 

It  is  the  nervous  system  by  which  we  human  beings 
live.  Our  voluntary  muscles  are  agents  of  the  will, 
agents  of  purpose;  and  while  strength  is  a  trifle,  skill 
is  always  everything.  We  know  now  that  it  is  im- 
possible to  carry  out  any  human  purpose  by  the  con- 
traction of  one  muscle  or  even  one  group  of  muscles. 
Even  when  we  merely  bend  the  arm  we  are  doing 
things  with  the  muscles  which  extend  it,  and  when  we 
raise  it  sideways  we  are  modifying  the  whole  trunk 
in  order  to  preserve  the  balance.  We  have  only  to 
watch  the  clumsiness  of  an  infant  or  a  small  child  to 
realize  how  much  skill  the  nervous  system  has  to  ac- 
quire. This  skill  may  be  mainly  expressed  as  co-ordi- 
nation, the  balanced  use  of  many  muscles  for  a  pur- 
pose and,  as  a  rule,  their  co-ordinated  use  with  one  of 
the  senses,  more  especially  vision,  but  also  touch  and 
hearing. 

This  is  the  first  of  the  physiological  reasons  why 
games  and  play  of  all  sorts  are  so  incomparably  supe- 
rior to  the  use  of  dumb-bells  and  developers,  where 
movement  and  increase  of  muscular  strength  are  made 
ends  in  themselves;  whereas  in  play  we  are  making  re- 
lations with  the  outside  world,  responding  to  stimuli, 


The  Physical   Training  of  Girls  III 

educating  our  nerve  muscular  apparatus  as  an  instru- 
ment of  human  purpose. 

It  is  in  part  true  to  suppose  that  the  play  of  children 
expresses  an  overflow  of  superfluous  energy,  but  a  still 
deeper  and  much  more  important  conception  of  play 
is  that  which  recognizes  in  it  Nature's  method  of  nerv- 
ous development,  the  attainment  of  control  and  co-or- 
dination, the  capacity  of  quick  and  accurate  response 
to  circumstances  and  obedience  to  the  will.  Compare, 
for  instance,  the  girl  who  has  played  games,  avoiding 
danger  as  she  crosses  the  road,  with  another  whose 
youth  has  been  made  dreary  by  dumb-bells.  It  may 
freely  be  laid  down,  then,  that  systems  of  physical 
training  are  good  in  proportion  as  they  approximate 
to  play,  and  bad  in  proportion  as  they  depart  from  it; 
and,  further,  that  the  very  best  of  them  ever  devised 
is  worthless  in  comparison  with  a  good  game.  This 
evidently  does  not  refer  to,  say,  special  exercises  for  a 
curved  back. 

However,  systems  of  physical  training  we  shall  still 
have  with  us  for  a  long  time  to  corne,  and  perhaps  the 
mere  difficulty  of  finding  room  for  games  makes  them 
necessary,  though  it  may  be  noted  in  passing  that  the 
last  touch  of  absurdity  is  accorded  to  our  frequent 
preference  for  exercises  over  games  when  we  conduct 
the  exercises  in  foul  air  and  prefer  them  to  games  in 
the  open  air.  If  exercises  we  are  to  have,  then  they 
must  at  least  be  modelled  so  as  to  come  as  near  as  pos- 
sible to  play  in  the  two  essentials.  The  first  of  these 
has  already  been  mentioned — the  preference  of  skill 
to  strength  as  an  object. 


112  Woman  and  Womanhood 

The  second,  though  less  obvious,  is  no  less  import- 
ant. What  is  the  most  palpable  fact  of  the  child's 
play?  It  is  enjoyment.  We  have  done  for  ever  with 
the  elegant  morality  which  grown-up  people,  very  par- 
ticular about  their  own  meals,  used  to  impose  upon 
children,  and  which  was  based  upon  the  idea  that 
everything  which  a  child  enjoys  is  therefore  bad  for 
it.  We  are  learning  the  elements  of  the  physiology 
of  joy.  We  find  that  pleasure  and  boredom  have  dis- 
tinct effects  upon  the  body  and  the  mind,  notably  in  the 
matter  of  fatigue.  Careful  study  of  fatigue  in  school 
children  has  shown  that  the  hour  devoted  to  physical 
exercise  of  the  dreary  kind  under  a  strict  disciplinarian 
may,  instead  of  being  a  recreation,  actually  induce 
more  fatigue  than  an  hour  of  mathematics.  If,  then, 
we  cannot  allow  the  girl  to  play,  but  must  give  her 
some  kind  of  formal  exercise,  we  must  at  least  make 
it  as  enjoyable  as  possible.  There  are  Continental 
systems  of  gymnastics  which  do  not  believe  in  the  use 
of  music  because,  forsooth,  they  find  that  the  music 
diminishes  the  disciplinary  effect!  Such  an  argument 
dismisses  those  who  adduce  it  from  the  category  of 
those  entitled  to  have  anything  to  do  with  young  peo- 
ple. .  They  should  devote  themselves  to  training  the 
rhinoceros,  these  martinets;  the  human  spirit  is  not  for 
their  mauling.  In  point  of  fact  one  of  the  redeeming 
features  of  physical  training  is  the  use  of  music,  which 
goes  far  to  supply  the  pleasure  that  accrues  from  the 
natural  exercise  of  games,  and  greatly  reduces  the  fa- 
tigue of  which  the  risk  is  otherwise  by  no  means  incon- 
siderable. We  leave  this  subject,  then,  for  the  nonce, 


The  Physical  Training  of  Girls  113 

having  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  the  objects  of 
physical  training  are  skill  and  pleasure  rather  than 
strength  and  discipline;  that  the  system  is  best  which 
is  nearest  to  play;  and  that  the  use  of  music  is  specially 
to  be  commended. 

But,  as  we  have  said,  artificial  physical  training  at 
its  best  is  not  to  be  compared  with  the  real  thing;  more 
especially  if,  as  is  usually  the  case,  the  real  thing  has 
the  advantage  of  being  practised  in  pure  air.  We 
must  ask  ourselves,  then,  what  sort  of  games  are  suit- 
able for  girls,  and  to  what  extent,  if  at  all,  mixed 
games  are  desirable.  We  must  first  remind  ourselves 
of  the  proviso  that  any  game  may  be  played  to  excess, 
whether  physical  excess  or  mental  excess,  the  risk  of 
both  of  these  being  involved  when  the  competitive 
element  is  made  too  conspicuous.  If  this  risk  be 
avoided  there  is  no  objection,  perhaps,  to  even  such  a 
vigorous  game  as  hockey  in  moderation  for  girls. 
The  present  writer  has  observed  mixed  hockey  for 
many  years,  and  finds  it  impossible  to  believe  that  the 
game  should  be  condemned  for  girls,  but  he  has  always 
seen  it  under  conditions  where  the  game  was  simply 
played  for  the  fun  of  the  thing,  and  that  makes  a  great 
difference. 

It  is  certainly  open  to  argument  whether,  in  such  a 
game  as  hockey,  it  is  not  better,  on  the  whole,  that 
girls  shall  play  by  themselves,  but,  as  has  been  urged 
elsewhere,  there  is  a  good  deal  to  be  said  for  the  meet- 
ing of  the  sexes  elsewhere  than  in  the  artificial  condi- 
tions of  the  ball-room,  since  these  mixed  games  widen 
the  field  of  choice  for  marriage  and  provide  far  more 


114  Woman  and  Womanhood 

natural  and  desirable  conditions  under  which  the  choice 
may  be  made.  There  can  be  no  question  that  an 
epoch  has  been  created  by  the  freedom  of  the  modern 
girl  to  play  games,  and  to  enjoy  the  movements  of  a 
ball,  as  her  brother  does.  The  very  fact  of  her  pleas- 
ure in  games  indicates,  to  those  who  do  not  believe 
that  the  body  is  constructed  on  essentially  vicious  prin- 
ciples, that  they  must  be  good  for  her.  The  mere  ex- 
ercise is  the  least  of  the  good  they  do.  The  open  air 
counts  for  more,  as  does  the  development  of  skill,  and 
the  girl's  opportunity  of  sharing  in  that  moral  educa- 
tion which  all  good  games  involve  and  which  there  is 
no  need  to  insist  upon  here.  Amongst  the  many 
things  alleged  against  woman  as  natural  defects  by 
those  who  have  never  for  a  moment  troubled  to  dis- 
tinguish between  nature  and  nurture,  are  an  incapacity 
to  combine  with  her  sisters,  petty  dishonour  in  small 
things,  a  blindness  to  the  meaning  of  u  playing  the 
game."  It  is  similarly  alleged  by  such  persons  against 
the  lower  classes  that  they  also  do  not  know  how  to 
"  play  the  game,"  and  do  not  understand  the  spirit  of 
true  sportsmanship,  preferring  to  win  anyhow  rather 
than  not  at  all.  But  those  who  conduct  the  Children's 
Vacation  Schools  in  London — that  remarkable  ar- 
rangement by  which  children  are  damaged  in  school 
time  and  educated  in  holidays — are  aware  that  in  a 
short  time  children  of  any  class  can  be  taught  to  u  play 
the  game,"  if  only  they  can  be  made  to  see  it  from  that 
point  of  view.  So  also  women  can  learn  to  combine, 
to  be  unselfish,  to  avoid  petty  deceits  even  in  games, 
to  obey  a  captain  and  to  accept  the  umpire's  decision, 


The  Physical  Training  of  Girls  115 

when  they  are  taught,  as  we  all  have  to  be  taught,  that 
that  is  playing  the  game. 

These  immense  virtues  of  the  new  departure  must 
by  no  means  be  forgotten  in  the  course  of  the  reaction 
which  is  bound  to  occur,  and  is  indeed  necessary, 
against  the  contemporary  practice  of  trying  to  demon- 
strate that  boys  and  girls  are  substantially  identical. 
He  who  pleads  for  the  golden  mean  is  always  abused 
by  extremists  of  both  parties,  but  is  always  justified  in 
the  long  run,  and  this  is  a  case  where  the  golden  mean 
is  eminently  desirable,  being  indeed  vital,  which  is 
much  more  than  golden.  Safety  is  to  be  found  in  our 
recognition  of  elementary  physiological  principles,  as- 
suming from  the  first  that  though  it  is  not  difficult  to 
turn  a  girl  into  something  like  a  boy,  it  is  not  desira- 
ble; and  especially  in  attending  carefully,  in  the  case 
of  each  individual,  to  the  indications  furnished  by  that 
characteristic  physiological  function,  interference  with 
which  necessarily  imperils  womanhood. 

The  organism  is  a  whole;  it  reacts  not  only  to  physi- 
cal strain  but  to  mental  strain.  There  are  parts  of 
the  world,  including  a  country  no  less  distinguished  as 
a  pioneer  of  education  than  Scotland,  where  serious 
mental  strain  is  now  being  imposed  upon  girls  at  this 
very  period  of  the  dawn  of  womanhood,  when  strain 
of  any  kind  is  especially  to  be  deplored.  Utterly  ig- 
noring the  facts  of  physiology,  the  laws  and  approxi- 
mate dates  of  human  development,  official  regulations 
demand  that  at  just  such  ages  as  thirteen,  fourteen, 
and  fifteen  large  numbers  of  girls — and  picked  girls — 
shall  devote  themselves  to  the  strain  of  preparing  for 


Il6  Woman  and  Womanhood1 

various  examinations,  upon  which  much  depends. 
Worry  combines  to  work  its  effects  with  those  of  ex- 
cessive mental  application,  excessive  use  of  the  eyes 
at  short  distances,  and  defective  open-air  amusement. 
The  whole  examination  system  is  of  course  to  be  con- 
demned, but  most  especially  when  its  details  are  so 
devised  as  to  press  thus  hardly  upon  girlhood  at  this 
critical  and  most  to  be  protected  period.  Many  years 
ago  Herbert  Spencer  protested  that  we  must  acquaint 
ourselves  with  the  laws  of  life,  since  these  underlie  all 
the  activities  of  living  beings.  The  time  is  now  at 
hand  when  we  shall  discover  that  education  is  a  prob- 
lem in  applied  biology,  and  that  the  so-called  educator, 
whether  he  works  destruction  from  some  Board  of 
Education  or  elsewhere,  who  knows  and  cares 
nothing  about  the  laws  of  the  life  of  the  being  with 
whom  he  deals,  is  simply  an  ignorant  and  dangerous 
quack. 

What  has  been  said  about  the  reaction  against  ex- 
cess in  the  physical  education  of  girls  applies  very  for- 
cibly to  excess  in  their  mental  education.  We  are 
undoubtedly  coming  upon  a  period  when  more  and 
more  will  be  heard  of  the  injurious  consequences  of 
such  ill-timed  preparation  for  stupid  examinations  as 
has  been  referred  to;  and  there  will  be  not  a  few  to 
sigh  for  the  return  to  the  bad  old  days  which  a  certain 
type  of  mind  always  calls  good.  Here,  again,  we  must 
find  the  golden  mean,  recognizing  that  the  danger  lies 
in  excess,  and  especially  in  ill-timed  excess.  We  shall 
further  discover  that  if  we  desire  a  girl  to  become  a 
woman,  and  not  an  indescribable,  we  must  provide  for 


The  Physical  Training  of  Girls  117 

her  a  kind  of  higher  education  which  shall  take  into 
account  the  object  at  which  we  aim.  It  will  be  found 
that  there  are  womanly  concerns,  of  profound  impor- 
tance to  a  girl  and  therefore  to  an  empire,  which  de- 
mand no  less  of  the  highest  mental  and  moral  qualities 
than  any  of  the  subjects  in  a  man's  curriculum,  and  the 
pursuit  of  which  in  reason  does  not  compromise 
womanhood,  but  only  ratifies  and  empowers  it. 

Muscles  worth  Developing.  —  When  men  and 
women  are  carefully  compared,  it  is  found  that  women, 
muscularly  weaker  as  a  whole,  are  most  notably  so 
as  regards  the  arms,  the  muscles  of  respiration,  and 
the  muscles  of  the  back.  The  muscles  of  the  legs, 
and  especially  of  the  thighs,  are  relatively  stronger. 
In  these  facts  we  can  find  some  practical  guidance. 
The  muscles  of  all  the  limbs  may  be  left  comparatively 
out  of  account;  whether  naturally  weak  or  naturally 
strong  they  are  of  subordinate  importance.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  always  worth  while  to  cultivate  the 
muscles  of  respiration,  as  it  is  always  worth  while  to 
keep  the  heart  in  good  order.  Again,  the  weakness 
of  the  muscles  of  the  back,  and  more  especially  in  the 
case  of  the  growing  girl,  is  not  a  thing  to  be  accepted 
as  readily  as  the  weakness  of  the  biceps  and  the  fore- 
arm muscles.  Various  observers  find  a  proportion 
of  between  85  per  cent,  and  90  per  cent,  of  those  suf- 
fering from  lateral  curvature  of  the  spine  to  be  girls, 
the  great  majority  of  these  cases  occurring  between 
the  ages  of  ten  and  fifteen.  Everywhere  it  is  our 
duty  to  prevent  such  cases,  and  everywhere  physical 
training  will  find  only  too  abundant  opportunities  for 


Il8  Woman  and  Womanhood 

endeavouring  to  correct  them.  It  may  be  doubted 
perhaps  whether  we  may  rightly  follow  Havelock 
Ellis  in  attributing  woman's  liability  to  backache  to  the 
relative  weakness  of  the  muscles  of  the  back,  for  we 
know  how  often  this  symptom  depends  upon  not  mus- 
cular but  internal  causes  peculiar  to  woman.  On  the 
other  hand,  we  may  certainly  follow  Havelock  Ellis 
when  he  says,  regarding  this  lateral  curvature  of  the 
spine,  from  which  so  many  girls  and  women  suffer: 
'*  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  defective  muscular  de- 
velopment of  the  back,  occurring  at  the  age  of  maxi- 
mum development,  and  due  to  the  conventional  re- 
straints on  exercises  involving  the  body,  and  also  to 
the  use  of  stays,  which  hamper  the  freedom  of  such 
movements,  is  here  a  factor  of  very  great  importance." 
We  shall  not  here  concern  ourselves  with  the  details 
of  practice,  but  the  principle  is  to  be  laid  down  that 
perhaps  second  only  in  importance  to  the  right  de- 
velopment of  the  heart  and  the  muscles  of  respiration 
is  that  of  the  muscles  of  the  back. 

Always,  however,  we  are  apt  to  judge  by  the  obvi- 
ous and  to  value  it  unduly.  Nature  makes  the  biceps 
and  the  muscles  of  the  forearm  naturally  the  weakest 
in  woman  compared  with  man,  but  it  is  just  the  bend- 
ing of  the  elbow  that  makes  a  good  show  on  a  hori- 
zontal bar  or  rope;  and  so  we  devote  too  much  time  to 
the  training  of  these  muscles  in  our  girls,  with  the  re- 
sults which  make  such  creditable  exhibitions  at  the  end 
of  the  session,  while  we  forget  the  muscles  of  the  back, 
the  right  development  of  which  is  far  more  valuable, 
but  does  not  lend  itself  to  display. 


The  Physical  Training  of  Girls  119 

In  this  connection  it  is  to  be  added  last,  but  not 
least,  that  special  importance  attaches  in  woman  to 
those  muscles  which  one  may  perhaps  call  the  muscles 
of  motherhood.  It  is  common  experience  amongst 
physicians  to  find  the  appropriate  muscularity  defec- 
tive at  childbirth  in  women  the  muscles  of  whose 
limbs  may  have  been  very  highly  developed.  Thus 
Dr.  Havelock  Ellis,  amongst  other  evidence,  quotes 
that  of  a  physician,  who  says :  "  In  regard  to  this  in- 
teresting and  suggestive  question,  it  does  seem  a  fact 
that  women  who  exercise  all  their  muscles  persistently 
meet  with  increased  difficulties  in  parturition.  It 
would  certainly  seem  that  excessive  development  of  the 
muscular  system  is  unfavourable  to  maternity.  I  hear 
from  instructors  in  physical  training,  both  in  the 
United  States  and  in  England,  of  excessively  tedious 
and  painful  confinements  among  their  fellows — two 
or  three  cases  in  each  instance  only,  but  this  within  the 
knowledge  of  a  single  individual  among  his  friends. 
I  have  also  several  such  reports  from  the  circus — per- 
haps exceptions.  I  look  upon  this  as  a  not  impossible 
result  of  muscular  exertion  in  women,  the  development 
of  muscle,  muscular  attachments,  and  bony  frame  lead- 
ing to  approximation  to  the  male." 

In  his  lectures  ten  years  ago,  the  distinguished  ob- 
stetrician, Sir  Halliday  Croom,  now  professor  of  Mid- 
wifery in  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  used  to  criticise 
cycling  on  this  score,  not  as  regards  its  development 
of  the  muscles  of  the  lower  limbs,  but  as  tending  to- 
wards local  rigidity  unfavourable  to  childbirth.  It 
may  be  doubted,  perhaps,  whether  longer  and  wider 


I2O  Woman  and  Womanhood 

experience  of  cycling  by  women  warrants  this  criticism, 
but  it  is  probably  worth  noting. 

On  the  other  hand,  while  exercise  of  certain  muscles 
may  interfere  obscurely  or  mechanically  with  mother- 
hood, we  are  to  remember  that  the  muscles  of  the  ab- 
domen are  indeed  the  accessory  muscles  of  mother- 
hood, and  therefore  specially  to  be  considered.  Ac- 
cording to  Mosso  of  Turin,  it  is  only  in  modern  times 
that  civilized  woman  shows  the  comparative  weakness 
of  these  muscles  which  is  indeed  commonly  to  be  found. 
There  is  verily  no  sign  of  it  in  the  Venus  of  Milo,  as 
any  one  can  see.  That  statue  represents  very  highly 
developed  abdominal  muscles  in  a  woman  less  notably 
muscular  elsewhere.  The  muscles  lie  near  the  skin, 
the  disposition  of  fat  being  very  small,  yet  the  woman 
is  distinctively  maternal  in  type,  and  every  kind  of 
aesthetic  praise  that  may  be  showered  upon  the  statue 
may  be  supplemented  by  the  encomiums  of  the  physi- 
ologist and  the  worshipper  of  motherhood.  It  is 
highly  desirable  that,  in  physical  training  to-day,  at- 
tention should  be  paid  to  the  development  of  the  ab- 
dominal muscles.  Holding  the  abdomen  together  by 
means  of  a  corset  may  serve  its  own  purpose,  but  does 
less  than  nothing  in  the  crisis  of  motherhood.  The 
corset  indeed  conduces  to  the  atrophy  of  the  most  im- 
portant of  all  the  voluntary  muscles  for  the  most  im- 
portant crisis  of  a  woman's  life.  "  Some  of  the 
slower  Spanish  dances  "  are  commended  for  the  de- 
velopment of  the  abdominal  muscles,  but  one  would 
rather  recommend  swimming,  the  abandonment  of  the 
corset,  and,  if  the  gymnasium  is  to  be  used,  some  of 


The  Physical  Training  of  Girls  121 

the  various  exercises  which  serve  these  muscles,  how- 
ever little  they  may  serve  to  exploit  the  apparatus  of 
the  gymnasium  when  visitors  are  invited. 

There  is  no  occasion  in  the  present  volume  to  dis- 
cuss in  detail  any  such  thing  as  a  course  of  physical 
exercises,  but  it  is  a  pleasure,  and,  for  the  English 
reader,  a  convenience  to  direct  attention  to  the  Sylla- 
bus of  Physical  Exercises  for  Public  Elementary 
Schools,  issued  by  the  English  Board  of  Education  in 
1909.*  After  nearly  forty  years  of  folly,  the  dawn 
is  breaking  in  our  schools.  It  is  evident  that  the 
Board  of  Education  has  followed  the  best  medical  ad- 
vice. Indeed,  now  that  medical  knowledge  is  actually 
represented  upon  the  Board,  and  represented  as  it  is, 
there  is  no  need  to  go  far.  The  principles  which  have 
been  laid  down  in  previous  pages  are  abundantly  rec- 
ognized in  this  admirable  syllabus.  The  exercises 
recommended  for  the  nation's  children  are  based  upon 
the  Swedish  system  of  educational  gymnastics.  But 
it  is  fortunately  recognized  that  that  system  requires 
modification,  since  "  freedom  of  movement  and  a  cer- 
tain degree  of  exhilaration  are  essentials  of  all  true 
physical  education.  Hence  it  has  been  thought  well 
not  only  to  modify  some  of  the  usual  Swedish  combi- 
nations in  order  to  make  the  work  less  exacting,  but 
to  introduce  games  and  dancing  steps  into  many  of  the 
lessons."  "  The  Board  desire  that  all  lessons  in  physi- 
cal exercises  in  public  elementary  schools  should  be 
thoroughly  enjoyed  by  the  children."  "  Enjoyment 
is  one  of  the  most  necessary  factors  in  nearly  every- 

*  This  may  be  obtained  from  any  bookseller  at  the  price  of  9<1.    » 


122  Woman  and  Womanhood 

thing  which  concerns  the  welfare  of  the  body,  and  if 
exercise  is  distasteful  and  wearisome,  its  physical  as 
well  as  its  mental  value  is  greatly  diminished."  An 
interesting  paragraph  on  music  recognizes  its  value  in 
avoiding  fatigue,  but  underestimates,  perhaps,  the  de- 
sirability of  including  music  for  use  at  later  years  as 
well  as  for  infant  classes. 

The  syllabus  contains  admirably  illustrated  exercises 
in  detail.  They  are  earnestly  to  be  commended  to  the 
reader  who  is  responsible  for  girlhood,  and  notably 
to  those  who  are  interested  in  the  formation  and  con- 
ducting of  girls'  clubs.  The  syllabus  is  excellent  in 
the  attention  paid  to  games,  in  the  commendation  of 
skipping  and  of  dancing.  The  following  quotation 
well  illustrates  the  spirit  of  wisdom  which  is  at  last 
beginning  to  illuminate  our  national  education: — 
"  The  value  of  introducing  dancing  steps  into  any 
scheme  of  physical  training  as  an  additional  exercise 
especially  for  girls,  or  even  in  some  cases  for  boys,  is 
becoming  widely  recognized.  Dancing,  if  properly 
taught,  is  one  of  the  most  useful  means  of  promoting 
a  graceful  carriage,  with  free,  easy  movements,  and  is 
far  more  suited  to  girls  than  many  of  the  exercises 
and  games  borrowed  from  boys.  As  in  other  balance 
exercises,  the  nervous  system  acquires  a  more  perfect 
control  of  the  muscles,  and  in  this  way  a  further  de- 
velopment of  various  brain  centres  is  brought  about. 
.  .  .  Dancing  steps  add  very  greatly  to  the  interest 
and  recreative  effect  of  the  lesson,  the  movements  are 
less  methodical  and  exact,  and  are  more  natural;  if 
suitably  chosen  they  appeal  strongly  to  the  imagina- 


The  Physical  Training  of  Girls  123 

tion,  and  act  as  a  decided  mental  and  physical  stimulus, 
and  exhilarate  in  a  wholesome  manner  both  body  and 
mind." 

Plainly,  our  educators  have  begun  to  be  educated 
since  1870. 

Of  course,  there  is  dancing  and  dancing.  The  real 
thing  bears  the  same  relation  to  dancing  as  it  is  un- 
derstood in  Mayfair,  as  the  music  of  Schubert  does 
to  that  of  Sousa.  The  ideal  dancing  for  girls  is  such 
as  that  illustrated  by  the  children  trained  by  Miss 
Isadora  Duncan.  Some  of  these  girls  were  seen  for 
a  short  time  at  the  Duke  of  York's  Theatre  in  London 
not  long  ago,  and  the  American  reader,  rightly  proud 
of  Miss  Duncan,  should  not  require  to  be  told  what 
she  has  achieved.  Just  as  we  are  learning  the  impor- 
tance of  games  and  play,  so  that  a  syllabus  issued  by 
the  Board  of  Education  instructs  one  how  to  stand 
when  "  giving  a  back  "  at  leap-frog,  so  also  we  shall 
learn  again  from  Nature  that  dancing  of  the  natural 
and  exquisite  kind,  never  to  be  forgotten  or  confused 
with  imitations  by  any  one  who  has  seen  Miss  Dun- 
can's children,  must  be  recognized  as  a  great  educative 
measure — educative  alike  of  mind,  body,  ear,  and  eye, 
and  better  worth  while  for  any  girl  of  any  rank  than 
volumes  of  fictitious  history  concocted  by  fools  con- 
cerning knaves. 

Girls'  Clubs. — Allusion  has  been  made  to  girls' 
clubs,  and  one  may  be  fortunate  enough  to  have  some 
readers  who  may  feel  inclined  to  partake  in  the  splen- 
did work  which  may  be  done  by  this  means.  It  re- 
quires high  qualities  and  a  certain  amount  of  expert 


124  Woman  and  Womanhood 

knowledge.  Much  of  the  latter  can  be  obtained  from 
the  little  book  recommended  above.  For  the  rest,  it 
is  worth  while  briefly  to  point  out  what  the  girls'  club 
may  effect,  and  why  it  is  so  much  needed. 

It  has  been  insisted  that  puberty  is  a  critical  age 
because  it  means  the  dawn  of  womanhood.  It  is  criti- 
cal in  both  sexes,  not  only  for  the  body  but  also  for 
the  mind.  It  is  now  that  the  intellect  awakes;  it  is 
now  that  the  real  formation  of  character  begins.  We 
often  talk  about  spoilt  children  at  three  or  four,  but 
any  kind  of  making  or  marring  of  character  at  such 
ages  can  be  undone  in  a  few  weeks  or  less — that  is,  in 
so  far  as  it  is  an  effect  of  training  and  not  of  nature 
that  we  are  dealing  with.  The  real  spoiling  or  mak- 
ing is  at  that  birth  of  the  adult  which  we  call  puberty. 
During  adolescence  the  adult  is  being  made,  and  every- 
thing matters  for  ever.  This  is  true  of  physique,  of 
mind,  and  of  character.  The  importance  of  this 
period  is  recognized  by  modern  churches  in  their  rite 
of  Confirmation,  and  it  was  recognized  by  ancient  re- 
ligions, by  Greeks  and  by  Romans.  Our  national  ap- 
preciation of  it  is  expressed  by  our  devotion  of  vast 
amounts  of  money  and  labour  to  the  child,  until  the 
all-important  epoch  is  reached,  when  we  wash  our 
hands  of  it  We  educate  away,  for  all  we  are  worth, 
when  what  is  mainly  required  is  plenty  of  good  food 
and  open  air;  and  we  have  done  with  the  matter 
when  the  age  for  real  education  arrives.  In  time  to 
come  our  neglect  of  adolescence  in  both  sexes,  more 
especially  in  girls,  will  be  marvelled  at,  and  many  of 
the  evils  from  which  we  suffer  will  cease  to  exist  be- 
cause the  fatal  and  costly  economy  of  the  practical  man 


The  Physical  Training  of  Girls  125 

is  dismissed  as  a  delusion  and  a  sham,  and  it  is  per- 
ceived that  whether  for  the  saving  of  life  or  for  the 
saving  of  money,  adolescence  must  be  cared  for. 

Meanwhile,  it  behoves  private  people  who  care 
about  these  things  to  do  what  they  can.  If  they 
rightly  influence  but  ten  girls,  it  was  well  worth  doing. 
The  girls'  club  is  a  very  inexpensive  mode  of  social 
activity.  Practically  the  only  substantial  item  of  ex- 
penditure is  the  hire  of  a  gymnasium,  say  for  two  even- 
ings in  a  week.  The  girls'  dresses  can  be  made  at 
home  at  quite  a  trivial  cost.  The  primary  attraction 
would  be  the  gymnasium.  It  must,  of  course,  contain 
a  piano,  not  necessarily  one  on  which  Pachmann  would 
play,  but  a  piano  nevertheless.  There  is  also  required 
a  pianist,  not  necessarily  a  Pachmann.  Two  girls  are 
better  than  one  to  run  such  a  club.  They  will  not  find 
it  difficult  to  obtain  material  to  work  upon.  They 
must  acquire  at  a  Polytechnic,  or  perhaps  they  have  ac- 
quired themselves  at  school,  some  knowledge  of  how 
to  conduct  the  work  and  play  of  the  gymnasium.  It 
will  depend  upon  the  conductors  of  the  club  how  far 
its  virtues  extend.  Much  elementary  hygiene  may  be 
taught  as  well  as  practised,  and  if  it  confine  itself  only 
to  matters  of  ventilation,  clothing,  care  of  the  teeth 
and  feet,  it  is  abundantly  worth  while.  It  is  often  pos- 
sible to  get  medical  men  or  women  to  come  and  talk 
to  the  girls,  and  in  the  best  of  these  clubs  there  will  be 
some  more  or  less  conscious  and  overt  preparation  in 
one  way  and  another  for  matters  no  less  momentous 
alike  for  the  individual  and  the  race  than  marriage  and 
motherhood. 

Girls'    Clothing. — There   is   little   good  to  be  said 


126  Woman  and  Womanhood 

about  much  of  the  clothing  of  girls  and  women.  All 
clothing  should  of  course  be  loose,  on  grounds  which 
have  been  fully  gone  into  in  the  previous  volume  on 
personal  hygiene.  A  woman's  headgear  is  perhaps  too 
often  the  only  article  of  her  dress  which  conforms  to 
this  rule.  It  is  good  that  the  stimulant  effect  of  air, 
and  air  in  motion,  upon  the  skin  should  be  as  widely  ex- 
tended as  is  compatible  with  sufficient  waTmth  and  de- 
cency. Thus  most  women  wear  far  too  many  clothes, 
apart  from  the  question  of  tightness.  A  woman  han- 
dicaps herself  seriously  as  compared  with  a  man,  in 
that,  while  she  is  much  less  muscular,  her  clothes  are 
often  so  much  heavier.  All  this  applies  with  great 
force  to  girls.  The  following  quotation  from  the  syl- 
labus referred  to  above  is  worth  making : — 

"  A  Suitable  Dress  for  Girls. — A  simple  dress  for  girls  suit- 
able for  taking  physical  exercises  or  games  consists  of  a  tunic, 
a  jersey  or  blouse,  and  knickers.  The  tunic  and  knickers  may 
be  made  of  blue  serge,  and,  if  a  blouse  is  worn,  it  should  be 
made  of  some  washing  material. 

The  tunic,  which  requires  two  widths  of  serge,  may  be  gath- 
ered or,  preferably,  pleated  into  a  small  yoke  with  straps 
passing  over  the  shoulders.  The  dress  easily  slips  on  over 
the  head,  and  the  shoulder  straps  are  then  fastened.  It 
should  be  worn  with  a  loose  belt  or  girdle.  In  no  case  should 
any  form  of  stiff  corset  be  used. 

The  knickers,  with  their  detachable  washing  linen,  should 
replace  all  petticoats.  They  should  not  be  too  ample,  and 
should  not  be  visible  below  the  tunic.  They  are  warmer  than 
petticoats  and  allow  greater  freedom  of  movement. 

Any  plain  blouse  may  be  worn  with  the  tunic,  or  a  woollen 
jersey  may  be  substituted  in  cold  weather. 


The  Physical  Training  of  Girls  127 

With  regard  to  the  cost  of  such  a  dress,  serge  may  be  pro- 
cured for  Is.  6d.  to  2s.  per  yard.  For  the  tunic  some  2  to  2% 
yards  are  usually  required,  and  for  the  knickers  about  ll/2 
to  2  yards.  It  may  be  found  possible  in  some  schools  to  pro- 
vide patterns,  or  to  show  girls  how  to  make  such  articles  for 
themselves.  Such  a  dress,  though  primarily  designed  for 
physical  exercises,  is  entirely  suitable  for  ordinary  school  use. 

Though  it  is,  of  course,  not  practicable  to  introduce  this 
dress  into  all  Public  Elementary  Schools,  or  in  the  case  of 
all  girls,  yet  in  many  schools  there  are  children  whose  parents 
are  both  willing  and  able  to  provide  them  with  appropriate 
clothing.  The  adoption  of  a  dress  of  this  kind,  which  is  at 
the  same  time  useful  and  becoming,  tends  to  encourage  that 
love  of  neatness  and  simplicity  which  every  teacher  should 
endeavour  to  cultivate  among  the  girls.  And  as  it  allows  free 
scope  for  all  movements  of  the  body  and  limbs,  it  cannot  fail 
to  promote  healthy  physical  development." 


••?* 


IX 

THE    HIGHER    EDUCATION   OF   WOMEN 

IN  the  last  chapter  brief  reference  was  made  to  the 
effects  of  ill-timed  mental  strain.  Our  principles  have 
already  led  us  to  the  conclusion  that  there  are  special 
risks  for  girls  involved  in  educational  strain,  and  that 
is,  of  course,  equally  true  whatever  the  curriculum. 
But  that  being  granted,  it  is  necessary  to  draw  very 
special  attention  to  a  new  movement  in  the  higher  edu- 
cation of  women  which  is  based  upon  the  principle 
that  a  woman  is  not  the  same  as  a  man;  that  she  has 
special  interests  and  duties  which  require  no  less 
knowledge  and  skill  than  those  with  which  men  are 
concerned.  A  tentative  experiment  in  this  direction 
has  already,  we  are  assured,  altered  the  whole  attitude 
towards  life  of  those  girls  who  partook  in  it,  and  there 
is  no  question  that  we  now  see  the  beginning  of  a  new 
epoch  in  the  higher  education  of  women  upon  properly 
differentiated  lines  such  as  have  been  utterly  ignored 
in  the  past.  I  refer  to  the  "  Special  Courses  for  the 
Higher  Education  of  Women  in  Home  Science  and 
Household  Economics,"  which  now  form  part  of  the 
activities  of  the  University  of  London  at  King's  Col- 
lege. "  The  main  object  of  these  courses/'  we  are 

128 


The  Higher  Education  of  Women         129 

told,  "  is  to  provide  a  thoroughly  scientific  education 
in  the  principles  underlying  the  whole  organization  of 
'  Home  Life,'  the  conduct  of  Institutions,  and  other 
spheres  of  civic  and  social  work  in  which  these  prin- 
ciples are  applicable."  The  lecturers  are  mainly 
highly  qualified  women,  and  the  courses  are  extremely 
thorough  and  comprehensive.  The  following  are  the 
subjects  which  are  dealt  with:  economics  and  ethics, 
psychology,  biology,  business  matters,  physiology,  bac- 
teriology, chemistry,  domestic  arts,  sanitary  science 
and  hygiene,  applied  chemistry  and  physics.* 

It  will  be  seen  that  there  is  no  underrating  here  of 
the  capacities  of  women.  The  courses  are  not  limited 
merely  to  cooking  and  washing,  though  these  are  most 
carefully  gone  into.  It  is  a  far  cry  from  them  to  psy- 
chology and  ethics  or  "  A  Sketch  of  the  Historical  De- 
velopment of  the  Household  in  England."  One  can 
imagine  the  joy  with  which  girls,  largely  nourished  on 
the  husks  which  constitute  most  of  the  educational  cur- 
ricula of  boys,  will  turn  to  a  series  of  lectures  on  Child 
Psychology,  that  deal  with  the  general  course  of  men- 
tal development  in  the  child,  with  interest  and  atten- 
tion, the  processes  of  learning,  mental  fatigue  and 
adolescence.  The  highest  capacities  of  the  mind  in 
women  are  not  ignored  when  we  find  included  a  course 
of  which  the  special  text-book  is  Spencer's  "  Data  of 
Ethics."  One  can  imagine  also  that  the  course  on  the 
elements  of  general  economics,  with  its  study  of  wealth 
and  value  and  price,  the  laws  of  production  and  dis- 

*  Further  particulars   may  be  obtained   from   the  Vice- Principal,   King's  College 
(Women's  Department),  13  Kensington  Square,  London,  W. 


130  Woman  and  Womanhood 

tribution,  may  bring  into  being  a  kind  of  housewife 
who,  whether  or  not  eligible  for  Parliament,  would 
certainly  be  a  much  more  desirable  member  thereof 
than  nine-tenths  of  the  prosperous  gentlemen  who  daily 
record  their  opinions  there  upon  matters  they  know 
not  of.  All  who  care  at  all  for  womanhood  or  for 
England  must  rejoice  in  the  beginnings  of  this  revised 
version  of  higher  education  for  women  which,  for  once 
in  a  way,  finds  London  a  pioneer.  We  must  have  such 
courses  all  over  the  country.  Every  father  who  can 
afford  it  must  give  his  girls  the  incalculable  benefit  of 
such  opportunities.  The  girl  thus  educated  will  glory 
in  her  womanhood,  and  will  help  to  gain  for  it  its  right 
estimation  and  position  in  the  state. 

But  it  is  to  be  pointed  out  that  such  courses  as  these, 
admirable  though  they  be,  are  yet  not  everything. 
The  influence  of  our  great  national  deity,  which  is  Mrs. 
Grundy,  is  apparent  still.  It  is  not  specifically  recog- 
nized that  the  highest  destiny  of  a  woman  is  mother- 
hood, though  in  such  courses  as  this  motherhood  will 
doubtless  be  served  directly  and  indirectly  in  many 
ways.  There  is,  nevertheless,  required  something 
more — something  indeed  no  less  than  conscious,  pur- 
poseful education  for  parenthood.  The  chief  obsta- 
cle in  the  way  of  this  ideal  is  Anglo-Saxon  prudery, 
and,  perhaps,  the  reader  will  not  be  persuaded  that 
education  for  parenthood  is  our  greatest  educational 
need  to-day,  more  especially  for  girls,  until  he  or  she 
has  been  persuaded  of  the  magnitude  of  the  preventa- 
ble evils  which  flow  from  our  present  neglect  of  this 
matter.  In  the  following  chapter,  therefore,  one  may 


The  Higher  Education  of  Women         131 

point  out  what  prudery  costs  us  at  present,  and  indeed, 
the  reader  may  then  be  persuaded  that  education  for 
parenthood,  or,  as  it  may  be  called,  eugenic  education, 
is,  perhaps,  the  most  important  subject  that  can  be  dis- 
cussed to-day  in  any  book  on  womanhood. 


THE    PRICE    OF    PRUDERY 

JUST  after  we  had  succeeded  in  getting  the  Notifica- 
tion of  Births  Act  put  upon  the  Statute  Book,  the  pres- 
ent writer  occupied  himself  in  various  parts  of  the 
country  in  the  efforts  which  were  necessary  to  persuade 
local  authorities  to  adopt  the  provisions  of  that  Act. 
Addressing  a  meeting  of  the  clergy  of  Islington,  he 
endeavoured  to  trace  back  to  the  beginning  the  main 
cause  of  infant  mortality,  and  endeavoured  to  show 
that  that  lay  in  the  natural  ignorance  of  the  human 
mother,  about  which  more  must  later  be  said.  In  the 
discussion  which  followed,  an  elderly  clergyman  in- 
sisted that  the  causes  had  not  been  traced  far  enough 
back,  maternal  ignorance  being  itself  permitted  in  con- 
sequence of  our  national  prudery. 

Ever  since  that  day  one  has  come  to  see  more  and 
more  clearly  that  the  criticism  was  just.  Maternal  ig- 
norance, as  we  shall  see  later,  is  a  natural  fact  of  hu- 
man kind,  and  destroys  infant  life  everywhere,  though 
prudery  be  or  be  not  a  local  phenomenon.  But  where 
vast  organizations  exist  for  the  remedying  of  igno- 
rance, prudery  indeed  is  responsible  for  the  neglect  of 
ignorance  on  the  most  important  of  all  subjects.  Let 
it  not  be  supposed  for  a  moment  that  in  this  protest 

132 


The  Price  of  Prudery  133 

one  desires,  even  for  the  highest  ends,  to  impart  such 
knowledge  as  would  involve  sullying  the  bloom  of  girl- 
hood. It  is  not  necessary  to  destroy  the  charm  of  in- 
nocence in  order  to  remedy  certain  kinds  of  ignorance; 
nor  are  prudery  and  modesty  identical.  Whatever 
prudery  may  be  when  analyzed,  it  seems  perfectly  fair 
to  charge  it  as  the  substantial  cause  of  the  ignorance 
in  which  the  young  generation  grows  up,  as  to  matters 
which  vitally  concern  its  health  and  that  of  future  gen- 
erations. Let  us  now  observe  in  brief  the  price  of 
prudery  thus  arraigned. 

There  is,  first,  that  large  proportion  of  infant  mor- 
tality which  is  due  to  maternal  ignorance,  as  we  shall 
see  in  a  subsequent  chapter.  At  present  we  may  briefly 
remind  ourselves  that  the  nation  has  had  the  young 
mother  at  school  for  many  years;  much  devotion  and 
money  have  been  spent  upon  her.  Yet  it  is  necessary 
to  pass  an  Act  insuring,  if  possible,  that  when  she  is 
confronted  with  the  great  business  of  her  life — which 
is  the  care  of  a  baby — within  thirty-six  hours  the  fact 
shall  be  made  known  to  some  one  who,  racing  for  life 
against  time,  may  haply  reach  her  soon  enough  to 
remedy  the  ignorance  which  would  otherwise  very 
likely  bury  her  baby.  Prudery  has  decreed  that  while 
at  school  she  should  learn  nothing  of  such  matters. 
For  the  matter  of  that  she  may  even  have  attended  a 
three-year  course  in  science  or  technology,  and  be  a 
miracle  of  information  on  the  keeping  of  accounts,  the 
testing  of  drains,  and  the  principles  of  child  psychol- 
ogy, but  it  has  not  been  thought  suitable  to  discuss  with 
her  the  care  of  a  baby.  How  could  any  nice-minded 


134  Woman  and  Womanhood 

teacher  care  to  put  such  ideas  into  a  girl's  head? 
Never  having  noticed  a  child  with  a  doll,  we  have 
somehow  failed  to  realize  that  Nature,  her  An- 
cient Mother  and  ours,  is  not  above  putting  into  her 
head,  when  she  can  scarcely  toddle,  the  ideas  at  which 
we  pretend  to  blush.  Prudery  on  this  topic,  and  with 
such  consequences,  is  not  much  less  than  blasphemy 
against  life  and  the  most  splendid  purposes  towards 
which  the  individual,  "  but  a  wave  of  the  wild  sea," 
can  be  consecrated. 

This  question  of  the  care  of  babies  offers  us  much 
less  excuse  for  its  neglect  than  do  questions  concerned 
with  the  circumstances  antecedent  to  the  babies'  ap- 
pearance. Yet  we  are  blameworthy,  and  disastrously 
so,  here  also.  Prudery  here  insists  that  boys  and  girls 
shall  be  left  to  learn  anyhow.  That  is  not  what  it 
says,  but  that  is  what  it  does.  It  feebly  supposes  not 
merely  that  ignorance  and  innocence  are  identical,  but 
that,  failing  the  parent,  the  doctor,  the  teacher,  and 
the  clergyman — and  probably  all  these  do  fail — igno- 
rance will  remain  ignorant.  There  are  others,  however, 
who  always  lie  in  wait,  whether  by  word  of  mouth 
or  the  printed  word,  and  since  youth  will  in  any  case 
learn — except  in  the  case  of  a  few  rare  and  pure  souls 
— we  have  to  ask  ourselves  whether  we  prefer  that 
these  matters  shall  be  associated  in  its  mind  with  the 
cad  round  the  corner  or  the  groom  or  the  chauffeur 
who  instructs  the  boy,  the  domestic  servant  who  in- 
structs the  girl,  and  with  all  those  notions  of  guilty 
secrecy  and  of  misplaced  levity  which  are  entailed;  or 
with  the  idea  that  it  is  right  and  wise  to  understand 


The  Price  of  Prudery  135 

these  matters  in  due  measure  because  their  concerns 
are  the  greatest  in  human  life. 

After  puberty,  and  during  early  adolescence,  when  a 
certain  amount  of  knowledge  has  been  acquired,  we 
leave  youth  free  to  learn  lies  from  advertisements, 
carefully  calculated  to  foster  the  tendency  to  hypo- 
chondria, which  is  often  associated  with  such  matters. 
Of  this,  however,  no  more  need  now  be  said,  since  it 
scarcely  concerns  the  girl. 

It  is  the  ignorance  conditioned  by  prudery  that  is 
responsible  later  on  for  many  criminal  marriages; 
contracted,  it  may  be,  with  the  blind  blessing  of  Church 
and  State,  which,  however,  the  laws  of  heredity  and 
infection  rudely  ignore.  Parents  cannot  bring  them- 
selves to  inquire  into  matters  which  profoundly  con- 
cern the  welfare  of  the  daughter  for  whom  they  pro- 
pose to  make  what  appears  to  be  a  good  marriage. 
They  desire,  of  course,  that  her  children  shall  be 
healthy  and  whole-minded;  they  do  not  desire  that 
marriage  should  be  for  her  the  beginning  of  disease, 
from  the  disastrous  effects  of  which  she  may  never  re- 
cover. But  these  are  delicate  matters,  and  prudery 
forbids  that  they  should  be  inquired  into;  yet  every 
father  who  permits  his  daughter  to  marry  without 
having  satisfied  himself  on  these  points  is  guilty,  at  the 
least,  of  grave  delinquency  of  duty,  and  may,  in  effect, 
be  conniving  at  disasters  and  desolations  of  which  he 
will  not  live  to  see  the  end. 

Young  people  often  grow  fond  of  each  other  and 
become  engaged,  and  then,  if  the  engagement  be  pro- 
longed— as  all  engagements  ought  to  be,  as  a  general 


136  Woman  and  Womanhood 

rule — they  may  find  that,  after  all,  they  do  not  wish 
to  marry.  Yet  the  girl's  mother,  an  imprudent  prude, 
may  often  in  this  and  other  cases  do  her  utmost  to 
bring  the  marriage  about,  not  because  she  is  convinced 
that  it  means  her  daughter's  highest  welfare  and  hap- 
piness, but  because  prudery  dictates  that  her  daughter 
must  marry  the  man  with  whom  she  has  been  so  fre- 
quently seen;  hence  very  likely  lifelong  unhappiness, 
and  worse. 

Society,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest  of  its  strata, 
is  afflicted  with  certain  forms  of  understood  and  emi- 
nently preventable  disease,  about  which  not  a  word 
has  been  spoken  in  Parliament  for  twenty  years,  and 
any  public  mention  of  which  by  mouth  or  pen  involves 
serious  risk  of  various  kinds.  Here  it  is  perhaps  not 
necessary  for  us  to  consider  the  case  of  the  outcast, 
and  of  the  diseases  with  which,  poor  creature,  she  is 
first  infected,  and  which  she  then  distributes  into  our 
homes.  Our  present  concern  is  simply  to  point  out 
that  prudery,  again,  is  largely  responsible  for  the  con- 
tinuance of  these  evils  at  a  time  when  we  have  so  much 
precise  knowledge  regarding  their  nature  and  the  pos- 
sibility of  their  prevention.  Medical  science  cannot 
make  distinctions  between  one  disease  and  another, 
nor  between  one  sin  and  another,  as  prudery  does. 
Prudery  says  that  such  and  such  is  vice,  that  its  con- 
sequences in  the  form  of  disease  are  the  penalties  im- 
posed by  its  abominable  god  upon  the  guilty  and  the 
innocent,  the  living  and  the  unborn  alike,  and  that 
therefore  our  ordinary  attitude  towards  disease  can- 
not here  be  maintained.  Physiological  science,  how- 


The  Price  of  Prudery  137 

ever,  knowing  what  it  knows  regarding  food  and  al- 
cohol, and  air  and  exercise  and  diet,  can  readily  dem- 
onstrate that  the  gout  from  which  Mrs.  Grundy  suf- 
fers is  also  a  penalty  for  sin;  none  the  less  because 
it  is  not  so  hideously  disproportionate,  in  its  measure 
and  in  its  incidence,  to  the  gravity  of  the  offence. 
These  moral  distinctions  between  one  disease  and  an- 
other have  little  or  no  meaning  for  medical  science, 
and  are  more  often  than  not  immoral. 

It  would  be  none  too  easy  to  show  that  the  medical 
profession  in  any  country  has  yet  used  its  tremendous 
power  in  this  direction.  Professions,  of  course,  do 
not  move  as  a  whole,  and  we  must  not  expect  the  uni- 
versal laws  of  institutions  to  find  an  exception  here. 
But  though  they  do  not  move,  they  can  be  moved. 
It  is  when  the  public  has  been  educated  in  the  elements 
of  these  matters,  and  has  been  taught  to  see  what  the 
consequences  of  prudery  are,  that  the  necessary  forces 
will  be  brought  into  action.  Meanwhile,  what  we 
call  the  social  evil  is  almost  entirely  left  to  the  efforts 
made  in  Rescue  Homes  and  the  like.  Despite  the 
judgment  of  a  popular  novelist  and  playwright,  it  is 
much  more  than  doubtful  whether  Rescue  Homes — 
the  only  method  which  Mrs.  Grundy  will  tolerate — 
are  the  best  way  of  dealing  with  this  matter,  even  if 
the  people  who  worked  in  them  had  the  right  kind  of 
outlook  upon  the  matter,  and  even  if  their  numbers 
were  indefinitely  multiplied.  Every  one  who  has  de- 
voted a  moment's  thought  to  the  matter  knows  per- 
fectly well  that  this  is  merely  beginning  at  the  end, 
and  therefore  all  but  futile.  I  mention  the  matter 


138  Woman  and  Womanhood 

here  to  make  the  point  that  the  one  measure  which 
prudery  permits — so  that  indeed  it  may  even  be  men- 
tioned upon  our  highly  moral  stage,  and  passed  by  the 
censor,  who  would  probably  be  hurried  into  eternity 
if  M.  Brieux's  Les  Avaries  were  submitted  to  him, 
and  who  found  "  Mrs.  Warren's  Profession  "  intol- 
erable— is  just  the  most  useless,  ill-devised,  and  liter- 
ally preposterous  with  which  this  tremendous  prob- 
lem can  be  mocked. 

This  leads  us  to  another  point.  It  is  that  the 
means  of  our  education,  other  than  the  schools,  are 
also  prejudiced  by  prudery.  Upon  the  stage  there  is 
permitted  almost  any  indecency  of  word,  or  innuendo, 
or  gesture,  or  situation,  provided  only  that  the  treat- 
ment be  not  serious.  Almost  anything  is  tolerable  if 
it  be  frivolously  dealt  with,  but  so  soon  as  these  in- 
tensely serious  matters  are  dealt  with  seriously,  pru- 
dery protests.  The  consequence  is  that  a  great  edu- 
cative influence,  like  the  theatre,  where  a  few  play- 
wrights like  M.  Brieux,  and  Mr.  Bernard  Shaw,  and 
Mr.  Granville  Barker,  and  Mr.  John  Galsworthy, 
might  effect  the  greatest  things,  is  relegated  by  Mrs. 
Grundy  to  the  plays  produced  by  Mr.  George  Ed- 
wardes  and  other  earnest  upholders  of  the  censorship. 

Publishers  also,  while  accepting  novels  which  would 
have  staggered  the  Restoration  Dramatists,  can 
scarcely  be  found,  even  with  great  labour,  for  the  pub- 
lication of  books  dealing  with  the  sex  question  from 
the  most  responsible  medical  or  social  standpoints. 

It  is  just  because  public  opinion  is  so  potent,  and, 
like  all  other  powers,  so  potent  either  for  good  or  for 
evil,  that  its  present  disastrous  workings  are  the  more 


The  Price  of  Prudery  139 

deplorable.  It  is  not  unimaginable  that  prudery 
might  undergo  a  sort  of  transmutation.  As  I  have 
said  before,  we  might  make  a  eugenist  of  Mrs. 
Grundy,  so  that  she  might  be  as  much  affronted  by  a 
criminal  marriage  as  she  is  now  by  the  spectacle  of  a 
healthy  and  well-developed  baby  appearing  unduly 
soon  after  its  parents'  marriage.  The  power  is  there, 
and  it  means  well,  though  it  does  disastrously  ill. 
Public  opinion  ought  to  be  decided  upon  these  mat- 
ters; it  ought  to  be  powerful  and  effective.  We  shall 
never  come  out  into  the  daylight  until  it  is;  we  shall 
not  be  saved  by  laws,  nor  by  medical  knowledge,  nor 
by  the  admonitions  of  the  Churches.  Our  salvation 
lies  only  in  a  healthy  public  opinion,  not  less  effective 
and  not  more  well-meaning  than  public  opinion  is  at 
present,  but  informed  where  it  is  now  ignorant,  and 
profoundly  impressed  with  the  importance  of  reali- 
ties as  it  now  is  with  the  importance  of  appearances. 

So  much  having  been  said,  what  can  one  suggest 
in  the  direction  of  remedy?  First,  surely  it  is  some- 
thing that  we  merely  recognize  the  price  of  prudery. 
Personally,  I  find  that  it  has  made  all  the  difference 
to  my  calculations  to  have  had  the  thing  pointed  out 
by  the  clerical  critic  whose  eye  these  words  may  pos- 
sibly meet.  It  is  something  to  recognize  in  prudery 
an  enemy  that  must  be  attacked,  and  to  realize  the 
measure  of  its  enmity.  In  the  light  of  some  little  ex- 
perience, perhaps  a  few  suggestions  may  be  made  to 
those  who  would  in  any  way  join  in  the  campaign  for 
the  education  and  transmutation  of  public  opinion  on 
these  matters. 

First,  we  must  compose  ourselves  with  fundamental 


140  Woman  and  Womanhood 

seriousness — with  that  absolute  gravity  which  im- 
perils the  publication  of  a  book  and  entirely  prohibits 
the  production  of  a  play  on  such  matters.  There  is 
something  in  human  nature  beyond  my  explaining 
which  leads  towards  jesting  in  these  directions.  An 
instinct,  I  know,  is  an  instinct;  of  which  a  main  char- 
acter is  that  its  exercise  shall  be  independent  of  any 
knowledge  as  to  its  purpose.  We  eat  because  we  like 
eating,  rather  than  because  we  have  reckoned  that  so 
many  calories  are  required  for  a  body  of  such  and 
such  a  weight,  in  such  and  such  conditions  of  tempera- 
ture and  pressure.  It  is  not  natural,  so  to  say,  just 
because  man  is  in  a  sense  rather  more  than  natural, 
that  we  should  be  provident  and  serious,  self-con- 
scious, and  philosophic,  in  dealing  with  our  funda- 
mental instincts.  But  it  is  necessary,  if  we  are  to  be 
human:  and  only  in  so  far  as,  "looking  before  and 
after,"  we  transcend  the  usual  conditions  of  instinct, 
are  we  human  at  all. 

The  special  risk  run  by  those  who  would  deal  with 
these  matters  seriously — or  rather  one  of  the  risks — 
is  that  they  will  be  suspected,  and  may  indeed  be  guilty, 
of  a  tendency  to  priggishness  and  cant.  Youth  is  very 
likely  not  far  wrong  in  suspecting  those  who  would 
discuss  these  matters,  for  youth  has  too  often  been 
told  that  they  are  of  the  earth  earthy,  that  these  are 
the  low  parts  of  our  nature  which  we  must  learn  to 
despise  and  trample  on,  and  youth  knows  in  its  heart 
that  whatever  else  may  or  may  not  be  cant,  this  cer- 
tainly is.  So  any  one  who  proposes  to  speak  gravely 
on  the  subject  is  a  suspect. 


The  Price  of  Prudery  141 

Meetings  confined  to  persons  of  one  sex  offer  ex- 
cellent opportunities.  Much  can  be  done,  if  the  sus- 
picion of  cant  be  avoided,  by  men  addressing  the 
meetings  of  men  only  which  gather  in  many  churches 
on  Sunday  afternoons,  and  which  have  a  healthy  in- 
terest in  the  life  of  this  world  and  of  this  world  to 
come,  as  well  as  in  matters  less  immediate.  It  seems 
to  me  that  women  doctors  ought  to  be  able  to  do  ex- 
cellent work  in  addressing  meetings  of  girls  and 
women,  provided  always  that  the  speaker  be  genuinely 
a  woman,  rightly  aware  of  the  supremacy  of  mother- 
hood. 

Most  of  us  know  that  it  is  possible  to  read  a  medi- 
cal work  on  sex,  say  in  French,  without  any  offence 
to  the  aesthetic  sense,  though  a  translation  into  one's 
native  tongue  is  scarcely  tolerable.  This  contrasted 
influence  of  different  names  for  the  same  thing  is  an- 
other of  those  problems  in  the  psychology  of  prudery 
which  I  do  not  undertake  to  analyze,  but  which  must 
be  recognized  by  the  practical  enemy  of  prudery.  It 
is  unquestionably  possible  to  address  a  mixed  audience, 
large  or  small,  of  any  social  status,  on  these  matters 
without  offence  and  to  good  purpose.  But  certain 
terms  must  be  avoided  and  synonyms  used  instead. 
There  are  at  least  three  special  cases,  the  recognition 
of  which  may  make  the  practical  difference  between 
shocking  an  audience  and  producing  the  effect  one  de- 
sires. 

Reproduction  is  a  good  word  from  every  point  of 
view,  but  its  associations  are  purely  physiological,  and 
it  is  better  to  employ  a  word  which  renders  the  use  of 


142  Woman  and  Womanhood 

the  other  superfluous  and  which  has  a  special  virtue  of 
its  own.  This  is  the  term  parenthood,  a  hybrid  no 
doubt,  but  not  perhaps  much  the  worse  for  that.  One 
may  notice  a  teacher  of  zoology,  say,  accustomed  to 
address  medical  students,  offend  an  audience  by  the 
use  of  the  word  reproduction,  where  parenthood 
would  have  served  his  turn.  It  has  a  more  human 
sound — though  there  is  some  sub-human  parenthood 
which  puts  much  of  ours  to  shame — and  the  fact  that 
it  is  less  obviously  physiological  is  a  virtue,  for  human 
parenthood  is  only  half  physiological,  being  made  of 
two  complementary  and  equally  essential  factors  for 
its  perfection — the  one  physical  and  the  other  psychi- 
cal. Thus  it  is  possible  to  speak  of  physical  parent- 
hood and  of  psychical  parenthood,  and  thus  not  only 
to  avoid  the  term  reproduction,  but  to  get  better  value 
out  of  its  substitutes.  One  may  be  able  to  show,  per- 
haps, that  in  the  case  of  other  synonyms  also  a  hunt 
for  a  term  that  shall  save  the  face  of  prudery  may  be 
more  than  justified  by  the  recovery  of  one  which  has 
a  richer  content.  Terms  are  really  very  good  ser- 
vants, if  they  are  good  terms  and  we  retain  our  mas- 
tery of  them.  Let  any  one  without  any  previous  prac- 
tice start  to  write  or  speak  on  "  human  reproduction, " 
and  on  "  human  parenthood,  physical  and  psychical," 
and  he  will  find  that,  though  naming  often  saves  a 
lot  of  thinking,  as  George  Meredith  said,  wise  naming 
may  be  of  great  service  to  thought. 

In  these  matters  there  is  to  be  faced  the  fact  of 
pregnancy.  Here,  again,  is  a  good  word,  as  every 
one  knows  who  has  felt  its  force  or  that  of  the  corre- 
sponding adjective  when  judiciously  used  in  the  meta- 


The  Price  of  Prudery  143 

phorical  sense.  The  present  writer's  rule,  when 
speaking,  is  to  use  these  terms  only  in  their  meta- 
phorical sense,  and  to  employ  another  term  for  the 
literal  sense.  I  should  be  personally  indebted  to  any 
reader  who  can  inform  me  as  to  the  first  employment 
of  the  admirable  phrase,  "  the  expectant  mother." 
The  name  of  its  inventor  should  be  remembered.  In 
any  audience  whatever — perhaps  almost  including  an 
audience  of  children,  but  certainly  in  any  adult  audi- 
ence, whether  mixed  or  not,  medical  or  fashionable, 
serious  or  sham  serious — it  is  possible  to  speak  with 
perfect  freedom  on  many  aspects  of  pregnancy,  as  for 
instance  the  use  of  alcohol,  exposure  to  lead  poisoning, 
the  due  protection  at  such  a  period,  by  simply  using 
the  phrase  "  the  expectant  mother,"  with  all  its  preg- 
nancy of  beautiful  suggestion.  Here,  again,  our  suc- 
cess depends  upon  recognizing  the  psychical  factor  in 
that  which  to  the  vulgar  eye  is  purely  physiological — 
not  that  there  is  anything  vulgar  about  physiology  ex- 
cept to  the  vulgar  eye. 

For  myself,  the  phrase  "  the  expectant  mother  "  is 
much  more  than  useful,  though  in  speaking  it  has  made 
all  the  difference  scores  of  times.  It  is  beautiful  be- 
cause it  suggests  the  ideal  of  every  pregnancy — that 
the  expectant  mother  shall  indeed  expect,  look  for- 
ward to  the  life  which  is  to  be.  Her  motto  in  the 
ideal  world  or  even  in  the  world  at  the  foundations 
of  which  we  are  painfully  working,  will  be  those  words 
of  the  Nicene  creed  which  the  very  term  must  recall 
to  the  mind — Expecto  resurrectionem  mortuorum  et 
vitam  venturi  saculi. 

Let  any  one  who  fancies  that  these  pre-occupations 


144  Woman  and  Womanhood 

with  mere  language  are  trivial  or  misplaced  here  take 
the  opportunity  of  addressing  two  drawing-rooms  un- 
der similar  conditions,  on  some  such  subject  as  the 
care  of  pregnancy  from  the  national  point  of  view. 
Let  him  in  the  one  case  speak  of  the  pregnant  woman, 
and  so  forth,  and  in  the  other  of  the  expectant  mother. 
He  will  be  singularly  insensitive  to  his  audience  if  he 
does  not  discover  that  sometimes  a  rose  by  any  other 
name  is  somehow  the  less  a  rose.  The  more  fools 
we  perhaps,  but  there  it  is,  and  in  the  most  important 
of  ail  contemporary  propaganda,  which  is  that  of  the 
re-establishment  of  parenthood  in  that  place  of  su- 
preme honour  which  is  its  due,  even  such  "  literary  " 
debates  as  these  are  not  out  of  place. 

Sex  is  a  great  and  wonderful  thing.  The  further 
down  we  go  in  the  scale  of  life,  whether  animal  or 
vegetable,  the  more  do  we  perceive  the  importance 
of  the  evolution  of  sex.  The  correctly  formed  adjec- 
tive from  this  word  is  sexual,  but  the  term  is  practi- 
cally taboo  with  Mrs.  Grundy.  Only  with  caution 
and  anxiety,  indeed,  may  one  venture  before  a  lay  au- 
dience to  use  Darwin's  phrase,  "  sexual  selection." 
The  fact  is  utterly  absurd,  but  there  it  is.  One  of  the 
devices  for  avoiding  its  consequences  is  the  use  of  sex 
itself  as  an  adjective,  as  when  we  speak  of  sex  prob- 
lems; but  the  special  importance  of  this  case  is  in  re- 
gard to  the  sexual  instinct,  or,  if  the  term  offends  the 
reader,  let  us  say  the  sex  instinct.  Here  prudery  is 
greatly  concerned,  and  our  silence  here  involves  much 
of  the  price  of  prudery.  Now  since  the  word  sexual 
has  become  sinister,  we  cannot  speak  to  the  growing 


The  Price  of  Prudery  145 

boy  or  girl  about  the  sexual  instinct,  but  we  may  do 
much  better. 

For  what  is  this  sexual  instinct?  True,  it  manifests 
itself  in  connection  with  the  fact  of  sex,  but  essen- 
tially that  is  only  because  sex  is  a  condition  of  human 
reproduction  or  parenthood.  It  is  this  with  which 
the  sexual  instinct  is  really  concerned,  and  perhaps 
we  shall  never  learn  to  look  upon  it  rightly  or  deal 
with  it  rightly  until  we  indeed  perceive  what  the  busi- 
ness of  this  instinct  is,  and  regard  as  somewhat  less 
than  worthy  of  mankind  any  other  attitude  towards 
it.  Of  course  there  are  men  who  live  to  eat,  yet  the 
instincts  concerned  with  eating  exist  not  for  the  titilla- 
tion  of  the  palate  but  for  the  sustenance  of  life;  and, 
likewise,  though  there  are  those  who  live  to  gratify 
this  instinct,  it  exists  not  for  sensory  gratification,  but 
for  the  life  of  this  world  to  come.  Can  we  not  find 
a  term  which  shall  express  this  truth,  shall  be  inoffen- 
sive and  so  doubly  suitable  for  the  purposes  of  our 
cause? 

The  term  reproductive  instinct  is  often  employed. 
It  is  vastly  superior  to  sexual  instinct,  because  it  does 
refer  to  that  for  which  the  instinct  exists;  but  it  hints 
at  reproduction,  and  though  Mrs.  Grundy  can  tolerate 
the  idea  of  parenthood,  reproduction  she  cannot  away 
with.  We  cannot  speak  of  it  as  the  parental  instinct, 
because  that  term  is  already  in  employment  to  ex- 
press the  best  thing  and  the  source  of  all  other  good 
things  in  us.  Further,  the  sexual  instinct  and  the  pa- 
rental instinct  are  quite  distinct,  and  it  would  be  dis- 
astrous to  run  the  possibility  of  confusing  them — one 


146  Woman  and  Womanhood 

the  source  of  all  the  good,  and  the  other  the  source  of 
much  of  the  evil,  though  the  necessary  condition  of  all 
the  good  and  evil,  in  the  world. 

For  some  years  past,  in  writing  and  speaking,  I 
have  employed  and  counselled  the  employment  of  the 
term  "  the  racial  instinct."  This  seems  to  meet  all 
the  needs.  It  avoids  the  tabooed  adjective,  and  if  it 
fails  to  allude  at  all  to  the  fact  of  sex,  who  needs  re- 
minding thereof?  It  is  formed  from  the  term  race, 
which  prudery  permits,  and  it  expresses  once  and  for 
all  that  for  which  the  instinct  exists — not  the  indi- 
vidual at  all,  but  the  race  which  is  to  come  after  him. 
Doubtless  its  satisfaction  may  be  satisfactory  for  him 
or  her,  but  that  does  not  testify  to  Nature's  interest 
in  individuals,  but  rather  to  her  skill  in  insuring  that 
her  supreme  concern  shall  not  be  ignored,  even  by 
those  who  least  consciously  concern  themselves  with  it. 

These  are  perhaps  the  three  most  important  in- 
stances of  the  verbal,  or  perhaps  more  than  verbal, 
issues  that  arise  in  the  fight  with  prudery.  One  has 
tried  to  show  that  they  are  not  really  in  the  nature  of 
concessions  to  Mrs.  Grundy,  but  that  the  terms  com- 
mended are  in  point  of  fact  of  more  intrinsic  worth 
than  those  to  which  she  objects.  Other  instances  will 
occur  to  the  reader,  especially  if  he  or  she  becomes 
in  any  way  a  soldier  in  this  war,  whether  publicly  or 
as  a  parent  instructing  children,  or  on  any  other  of 
the  many  fields  where  the  fight  rages. 

It  is  not  the  purpose  of  the  present  chapter  to  deal 
with  that  which  must  be  said,  notwithstanding  prud- 
ery, and  in  order  that  the  price  of  prudery  shall  no 


The  Price  of  Prudery  147 

longer  be  paid.  But  one  final  principle  may  be  laid 
down  which  is  indeed  perhaps  merely  an  expression 
of  the  spirit  underlying  the  foregoing  remarks  upon 
our  terminology.  It  is  that  we  are  to  fly  our  flag 
high.  We  may  consult  Mrs.  Grundy's  prejudices  if 
we  find  that  in  doing  so  we  may  directly  serve  our 
own  thinking,  and  therefore  our  cause.  This  is  very 
different  from  any  kind  of  apologizing  to  her.  All 
such  I  utterly  deplore.  We  must  not  begin  by  grant- 
ing Mrs.  Grundy's  case  in  any  degree.  Somewhere  in 
that  chaos  of  prejudices  which  she  calls  her  mind,  she 
nourishes  the  notion,  common  to  all  the  false  forms 
of  religion,  ancient  or  modern,  that  there  is  something 
about  sex  and  parenthood  which  is  inherently  base  and 
unclean.  The  origin  of  this  notion  is  of  interest,  and 
the  anthropologists  have  devoted  much  attention  to  it. 
It  is  to  be  found  intermingled  with  a  by  no  means 
contemptible  hygiene  in  the  Mosaic  legislation,  is  to 
be  traced  in  the  beliefs  and  customs  of  extant  primitive 
peoples,  and  has  formed  and  forms  an  element  in 
most  religions.  But  it  is  not  really  pertinent  to  our 
present  discussion  to  weigh  the  good  and  evil  conse- 
quences of  this  belief.  Without  following  the  mod- 
ern fashion,  prevalent  in  some  surprising  quarters,  of 
ecstatically  exaggerating  the  practical  value  of  false 
beliefs  in  past  and  present  times,  we  may  admit  that 
the  cause  of  morality  in  the  humblest  sense  of  that 
term  may  sometimes  have  been  served  by  the  religious 
condemnation  of  all  these  matters  as  unclean,  and  of 
parenthood  as,  at  the  best,  a  second  best. 

But  for  our  own  day  and  days  yet  unborn  this  no- 


148  Woman  and  Womanhood 

tion  of  sex  and  its  consequences  as  unclean  or  the 
worser  part  is  to  be  condemned  as  not  merely  a  lie 
and  a  palpably  blasphemous  one,  grossly  irreligious 
on  the  face  of  it,  but  as  a  pernicious  lie,  and  to  be  so 
recognized  even  by  those  who  most  joyfully  cherish 
evidence  of  the  practical  value  of  lies.  Whatever 
may  have  been  the  case  in  the  past  or  among  present 
peoples  in  other  states  of  culture  than  our  own,  no 
impartial  person  can  question  that  during  the  Chris- 
tian Era  what  may  be  called  the  Pauline  or  ascetic  at- 
titude on  this  matter  has  been  disastrous;  and  that  if 
the  present  forms  of  religion  are  not  completely  to 
outlive  their  usefulness,  it  is  high  time  to  restore 
mother  and  child  worship  to  the  honour  which  it  held 
in  the  religion  of  Ancient  Egypt  and  in  many  an- 
other. If  the  mother  and  child  worship  which  is  to 
be  found  in  the  more  modern  religions,  such  as  Chris- 
tianity, is  to  be  worth  anything  to  the  coming  world 
it  must  cease  to  have  reference  to  one  mother  and 
one  child  only;  it  must  hail  every  mother  everywhere 
as  a  Madonna,  and  every  child  as  in  some  measure 
deity  incarnate.  By  no  Church  will  such  teaching  be 
questioned  to-day;  but  if  it  be  granted  the  Churches 
must  cease  to  uphold  those  conceptions  of  the  supe- 
riority of  celibacy  and  virginity  which,  besides  involv- 
ing grossly  materialistic  conceptions  of  those  states, 
are  palpably  incompatible  with  that  worship  of  parent- 
hood to  which  the  Churches  must  and  shall  now  be 
made  to  return. 

All  this  will  involve  many  a  shock  to  prudery;  to 
take  only  the   instance  of  what  we  call  illegitimate 


The  Price  of  Prudery  149 

motherhood,  our  eyes  askance  must  learn  that  there 
are  other  legitimacies  and  illegitimacies  than  those 
which  depend  upon  the  little  laws  of  men,  and  that 
if  our  doctrine  of  the  worth  of  parenthood  be  a  right 
one  it  is  our  business  in  every  such  case  to  say,  "  Here 
also,  then,  in  so  far  as  it  lies  in  our  power,  we  must 
make  motherhood  as  good  and  perfect  as  may  be." 

These  principles  also  will  lead  us  to  understand  how 
differently,  were  we  wise,  we  should  look  upon  the 
outward  appearances  of  expectant  motherhood.  In 
his  masterpiece,  Forel — of  all  living  thinkers  the  most 
valuable — has  a  passage  with  which  Mrs.  Grundy 
may  here  be  challenged.  It  is  too  simple  to  need 
translating  from  the  author's  own  French:* — 

"  La  fausse  honte  qu'ont  les  femmes  de  laisser  voir  leur 
grossesse  et  tout  ce  qui  a  rapport  a  1' accouchement,  les  plai- 
santeries  dont  on  use  souvent  a  1'egard  des  femmes  enceintes, 
sont  un  triste  signe  de  la  degenerescence  et  meme  de  la  cor- 
ruption de  notre  civilization  raffinee.  Les  femmes  enceintes 
ne  devraient  pas  ce  cacher,  ni  jamais  avoir  honte  de  porter  un 
enfant  dans  leur  ventre;  elles  devraient  au  contraire  en  etre 
fieres.  Pareille  fierte  serait  certes  bien  plus  justifiee  que  celle 
des  beaux  officiers  paradant  sous  leur  uniforme.  Les  signes 
exterieurs  de  la  formation  de  1'humanite  font  plus  d'honneur 
a  leurs  porteurs  que  les  symboles  de  sa  destruction.  Que  les 
femmes  s'impregnent  de  plus  en  plus  de  cette  profonde 
verite!  Elles  cesseront  alors  de  cacher  leur  grossesse  et  d'en 
avoir  honte.  Conscientes  de  la  grandeur  de  leur  tache  sexuelle 
et  sociale,  elles  tiendront  haut  1'etendard  de  notre  descendance, 

*  From  La  Question  Sexuelle,  French  edition,  p.  62,      The  author  wrote  the  book 
first  in  German  and  then  in  French. 


150  Woman  and  Womanhood 

qui  est  celui  de  la  veritable  vie  a  venir  de  Thomme,  tout  en 
combattant  pour  Femancipation  de  leur  sexe." 

This  passage  recalls  one  of  Ruskin's,  which  is  to 
be  found  in  "  Unto  This  Last  "  :— 

"  Nearly  all  labour  may  be  shortly  divided  into  positive  and 
negative  labour — positive,  that  which  produces  life;  negative, 
that  which  produces  death;  the  most  directly  negative  labour 
being  murder,  and  the  most  directly  positive  the  bearing  and 
rearing  of  children;  so  that  in  the  precise  degree  in  which 
murder  is  hateful  on  the  negative  side  of  idleness,  in  that 
exact  degree  child-rearing  is  admirable,  on  the  positive  side 
of  idleness." 

Here  is  the  right  comment  upon  the  swaggering 
display  of  the  means  of  death  and  the  hiding  as  if 
shameful  of  the  signs  of  life  to  come.  What  has 
Mrs.  Grundy  to  say  to  this?  Will  she  consider  the 
propriety  of  urging  in  future  that  it  is  murder  and  the 
means  of  murder,  and  the  organized  forces  of  capital 
and  politics  making  for  murder,  that  must  not  be  men- 
tioned before  children,  and  must  be  hidden  as  shame- 
ful from  the  eyes  of  men;  and  while  a  woman  may 
still  glory  in  her  hair,  according  to  that  spiritual  pre- 
cept of  St.  Paul:  "  But  if  a  woman  have  long  hair  it 
is  a  glory  to  her;  for  her  hair  is  given  her  for  a  cover- 
ing," perhaps  she  may  be  permitted  even  to  glory  in 
her  motherhood,  contemptible  as  such  a  notion  would 
doubtless  have  seemed  to  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles. 


XI 

EDUCATION    FOR   MOTHERHOOD 

IT  is  our  first  principle  in  this  discussion  that  the 
individual  exists  for  parenthood,  being  a  natural  in- 
vention for  that  purpose  and  no  other.  It  has  been 
shown  further  that  this  is  more  pre-eminently  true  of 
woman  than  of  man,  she  being  the  more  essential — 
if  such  a  phrase  can  be  used — for  the  continuance  of 
the  race.  If  these  principles  are  valid  they  must  in- 
deed determine  our  course  in  the  education  of  girls. 
Some  incidental  reference  has  already  been  made  to 
this  subject,  but  the  matter  must  be  more  carefully 
gone  into  here.  We  have  seen  that  there  are  right 
and  wrong  ways  of  conducting  the  physical  training 
of  girls,  according  as  whether  we  are  aiming  at  mus- 
cularity or  motherhood.  We  have  seen  also  that 
there  is  a  thing  called  the  higher  education  of  women, 
apparently  laudable  and  desirable  in  itself,  which  may 
yet  have  disastrous  consequences  for  the  individual 
and  the  race. 

In  a  book  devoted  to  womanhood,  and  written  at 
the  end  of  the  first  decade  of  the  twentieth  century, 
the  reader  might  well  expect  that  what  we  call  the 
higher  education  of  women  would  be  a  subject  treated 
at  great  length  and  with  great  respect.  Such  a  reader, 

151 


152  Woman  and  Womanhood 

turning  to  the  chapter  that  professedly  deals  with  the 
subject,  might  well  be  offended  by  its  brevity.  It 
might  be  asked  whether  the  writer  was  really  aware 
of  the  importance  of  the  subject — of  its  remarkable 
history,  its  extremely  rapid  growth,  and  its  conspicu- 
ous success  (in  proving  that  women  can  be  men  if 
they  please — but  this  is  my  comment,  not  the  read- 
er's). Nor  can  any  one  question  that  the  so-called 
higher  education  of  women  is  a  very  large  and  in- 
creasingly large  fact  in  the  history  of  womanhood 
during  the  last  half  century  in  the  countries  which  lead 
the  world — whither  it  were  perhaps  not  too  curious 
to  consider.  Further,  this  kind  of  education  does  in 
fact  achieve  what  it  aims  at.  Women  are  capable  of 
profiting  by  the  opportunities  which  it  offers,  as  we 
say.  This  is  itself  a  deeply  interesting  fact  in  nat- 
ural history,  refuting  as  it  does  the  assertions  of  those 
who  declared  and  still  declare  that  women  are  incap- 
able of  "  higher  education,"  except  in  rare  instances. 
It  is  important  to  know  that  women  can  become  very 
good  equivalents  of  men,  if  they  please. 

Further,  this  higher  education  of  women — and  we 
may  be  content  to  accept  the  adjective  without  qualifi- 
cation, since  it  is  after  all  only  a  comparative,  and 
leaves  us  free  to  employ  the  superlative — may  be  and 
often  is  of  very  real  value  in  certain  cases  and  because 
of  certain  local  conditions,  such  as  the  great  numerical 
inequality  of  the  sexes  in  nearly  all  civilized  countries. 
It  is  valuable  for  that  proportion  of  women,  whatever 
it  be,  who,  through  some  throw  of  the  physiological 
dice,  seem  to  be  without  the  distinctive  factor  for  psy- 


Education  for  Motherhood  153 

chical  womanhood,  the  existence  of  which  one  has  ten- 
tatively ventured  to  assume.  These  individuals,  like 
all  others,  are  entitled  to  the  fullest  and  freest  devel- 
opment of  their  lives,  and  it  is  well  that  there  shall 
be  open  to  them,  as  to  the  brothers  they  so  closely  re- 
semble, opportunities  for  intellectual  satisfaction  and 
self-development.  Therefore,  surely,  by  far  the  most 
satisfactory  function  of  higher  education  for  women 
is  that  which  it  discharges  in  reference  to  these  women. 
Their  destiny  being  determined  by  their  nature,  and 
irrevocable  by  nurture,  it  is  well  that,  though  we  can- 
not regard  it  as  the  highest,  we  should  make  the  ut- 
most of  it  by  means  of  the  appropriate  education. 

Only  because  sometimes  we  must  put  up  with  second 
bests  can  we  approve  of  higher  education  for  women 
other  than  those  of  the  anomalous  semi-feminine  type 
to  which  we  have  referred.  At  present  we  must  accept 
it  as  an  unfortunate  necessity  imposed  upon  us  by  eco- 
nomic conditions.  So  long  as  society  is  based  econom- 
ically, or  rather  uneconomically,  upon  the  disastrous 
principles  which  so  constantly  mean  the  sacrifice  of  the 
future  to  the  present,  so  long,  I  suppose,  will  it  be 
impossible  that  every  fully  feminine  woman  shall  find 
a  livelihood  without  some  sacrifice  of  her  womanhood. 
This  is  a  subject  to  which  we  must  return  in  a  later 
chapter.  Meanwhile  it  is  referred  to  only  because 
its  consideration  shows  us  some  sort  of  excuse,  if  not 
warrant,  for  the  higher  education  of  woman,  even 
though  in  the  process  of  thus  endowing  her  with  eco- 
nomic independence,  we  disendow  her  of  her  distinc- 
tive womanhood,  or  at  the  very  least  imperil  it;  even 


154  Woman  and  Womanhood 

though,  more  serious  still,  we  deprive  the  race  of  her 
services  as  physical  and  psychical  mother. 

We  have  seen  that  there  is  just  afoot  a  new  tend- 
ency in  the  higher  education  of  women,  and  it  is  indeed 
a  privilege  to  be  able  to  do  anything  in  the  way  of  di- 
recting public  attention  to  this  new  trend.  In  refer- 
ence thereto,  it  was  hinted  that  though  this  newer 
form  of  higher  education  for  woman  is  a  great  ad- 
vance upon  the  old,  and  is  so  just  because  it  implies 
some  recognition  of  woman's  place  in  the  world,  yet 
for  one  reason  or  another  it  falls  short  of  what  this 
present  student  of  womanhood,  at  any  rate,  demands. 
As  has  been  hinted  further,  probably  those  respon- 
sible for  the  new  trend  are  by  no  means  unaware  that, 
though  their  line  is  nearer  to  the  right  one,  the  direct 
line  to  the  "  happy  isles  "  has  not  quite  been  taken. 
But  great  is  Mrs.  Grundy  of  the  English,  and  those 
who  devised  the  new  scheme — one  is  willing  to  hazard 
the  guess — had  to  be  content  with  an  approximation 
to  what  they  knew  to  be  the  ideal.  That  is  why  we  de- 
voted the  last  chapter  to  the  question  of  prudery,  in- 
serting that  between  a  discussion  of  the  "  higher  edu- 
cation "  of  women  and  the  present  discussion,  which 
is  concerned  with  the  highest  education  of  women. 

Words  are  only  symbols,  but,  like  other  symbols, 
they  are  capable  of  assuming  much  empire  over  the 
mind.  Man,  indeed,  as  Stevenson  said,  lives  princi- 
pally by  catchwords,  and  though  woman,  beside  a 
cot,  is  less  likely  to  be  caught  blowing  bubbles  and 
clutching  at  them,  she  also  is  in  some  degree  at  the 
mercy  of  words.  The  higher  education  of  women  is 


Education  for  Motherhood  155 

a  good  phrase.  It  appeals,  just  because  of  the  fine 
word  higher,  to  those  who  wish  women  well,  and  to 
those  who  are  not  satisfied  that  woman  should  remain 
for  ever  a  domestic  drudge.  The  phrase  has  had  a 
long  run,  so  to  say,  but  I  propose  that  henceforth  we 
should  set  it  to  compete  with  another — the  highest 
education  of  women.  Whether  this  phrase  will  ever 
gain  the  vogue  of  the  other  even  a  biased  and  admir- 
ing father  may  well  question.  But  if  there  is  anything 
certain,  having  the  whole  weight  of  Nature  behind  it, 
and  only  the  transient  aberrations  of  men  opposed 
thereto,  it  is  that  what  I  call  the  highest  education  of 
women  will  be  and  will  remain  the  most  central  and 
capital  of  society's  functions,  when  what  is  now  called 
the  higher  education  of  women  has  gone  its  appointed 
way  with  nine-tenths  of  all  present-day  education,  and 
exists  only  in  the  memory  of  historians  who  seek  to 
interpret  the  fantastic  vagaries  of  the  bad  old  days. 

Perhaps  it  is  well  that  we  should  begin  by  freeing 
the  word,  education  from  the  incrustations  of  mortal 
nonsense  that  have  very  nearly  obscured  its  vitality 
altogether.  Before  we  can  educate  for  motherhood, 
we  must  know  what  education  is,  and  what  it  is  not. 
We  must  have  a  definition  of  it  and  its  object;  in  gen- 
eral as  well  as  in  this  particular  case,  otherwise  we 
shall  certainly  go  wrong.  Perhaps  it  may  here  be 
permitted  to  quote  a  paragraph  from  a  lecture  on 
1  The  Child  and  the  State,"  in  which  some  few  years 
ago  I  attempted  to  express  the  first  principles  of  this 
matter: — 

"  Now,  as  a  student  of  biology,  I  will  venture  to 


156  Woman  and  Womanhood 

propose  a  definition  of  education  which  is  new,  so  far 
as  I  know,  and  which  I  hope  and  believe  to  be  true  and 
important.  Comprehensively,  so  as  to  include  every- 
thing that  must  be  included,  and  yet  without  undue 
vagueness,  I  would  define  education  as  the  provision 
of  an  environment.  We  may  amplify  this  proposi- 
tion, and  say  that  it  is  the  provision  of  a  fit  environ- 
ment for  the  young  and  foolish  by  the  elderly  and 
wise.  It  has  really  scarcely  anything  in  the  world  to 
do  with  my  trying  to  make  you  pay  for  the  teaching  to 
my  children  of  dogmas  which  I  believe,  and  you  deny. 
It  neither  begins  nor  ends  with  the  three  R's;  and  it 
does  not  isolate,  from  that  whole  which  we  call  a  hu- 
man being,  the  one  attribute  which  may  be  defined  as 
the  intellectual  faculty.  It  is  the  provision  of  an  en- 
vironment, physical,  mental,  and  moral,  for  the  whole 
child,  physical,  mental,  and  moral.  That  is  my  defini- 
tion of  education.  Now,  what  are  we  to  say  of  the 
object  of  education?  In  providing  the  environment — 
from  its  mother's  milk  to  moral  maxims — for  our  child, 
what  do  we  seek?  Some  may  say,  to  make  him  a 
worthy  citizen,  to  make  him  able  to  support  himself; 
some  may  say,  to  make  him  fit  to  bear  arms  for  his  king 
and  country;  but  I  will  give  you  the  object  of  education 
as  defined  by  the  author  of  the  most  profound  and 
wisest  treatise  which  has  ever  been  written  upon  the 
subject — Plato,  Locke,  and  Milton  not  forgotten. 
4  To  prepare  us  for  complete  living,1  says  Herbert 
Spencer,  *  is  the  function  which  education  has  to  dis- 
charge.* The  great  thing  needed  for  us  to  learn  is 
how  to  live,  how  rightly  to  rule  conduct  in  all  direc- 


Education  for  Motherhood  157 

tions  under  all  circumstances ;  and  it  is  to  that  end  that 
we  must  direct  ourselves  in  providing  an  environment 
for  the  child.  Education  is  the  provision  of  an  en- 
vironment, the  function  of  which  is  to  prepare  for 
complete  living." 

Perhaps  the  only  necessary  qualification  of  the  fore- 
going is  that,  though  it  refers  specially  to  the  child, 
yet  the  need  of  education  does  not  end  with  childhood, 
becoming  indeed  pre-eminent  when  childhood  ends. 
So  we  may  apply  what  has  been  said  in  the  case  of  the 
girl,  and  we  shall  find  it  a  sure  guide  to  the  highest 
education  of  women. 

First,  education  being  the  provision  of  an  environ- 
ment in  the  widest  sense  of  that  very  wide  word,  al- 
ways misused  when  it  is  used  less  widely,  we  must  be 
sure  that  in  our  scheme  we  avoid  the  errors  of  past 
or  passing  schemes  which  concern  themselves  only 
with  some  aspect  of  the  environment,  and  so  in  effect 
prepare  for  something  much  less  than  complete  living. 
It  is  not  sufficient  to  provide  an  environment  which 
regards  the  girl  as  simply  a  muscular  machine,  as  is 
the  tendency,  if  not  actually  the  case,  in  some  of  the 
"  best  "  girls'  schools  to-day;  it  is  not  sufficient  to  pro- 
vide an  environment  which  looks  upon  the  girl  as 
merely  an  intellectual  machine,  as  in  the  higher  educa- 
tion of  women;  it  is  not  sufficient  to  provide  an  en- 
vironment which  looks  upon  the  girl  as  a  sideboard 
ornament,  in  Ruskin's  phrase,  such  as  was  provided 
in  the  earlier  Victorian  days.  In  all  these  cases  we 
are  providing  only  part  of  the  environment,  and  pro- 
viding it  in  excess.  None  of  them,  therefore,  satis- 


158  Woman  and  Womanhood 

fies  our  definition  of  education,  which  conceives  of  en- 
vironment as  the  sum-total  of  all  the  influences  to 
which  the  whole  organism  is  subjected — influences 
dietetic,  dogmatic,  material,  maternal,  and  all  other.* 

Who  will  question  that,  according  to  this  conception 
of  education,  such  a  thing  as  the  higher  education  of 
women  must  be  condemned  as  inadequate?  No  more 
than  a  man  is  woman  a  mere  intellect  incarnate.  Her 
emotional  nature  is  all-important;  it  is  indeed  the  high- 
est thing  in  the  Universe  so  far  as  we  know.  The 
scheme  of  education  which  ignores  its  existence,  and 
much  more  than  fails  to  provide  the  best  environment 
for  it,  is  condemnable.  But  the  scheme  of  education 
which  derides  and  despises  the  emotional  nature  of 
woman,  looking  upon  it  as  a  weakness  and  seeking  to 
suppress  it,  is  damnable,  and  has  led  to  the  damna- 
tion— or  loss,  if  the  reader  prefers  the  English  term 
— of  this  most  precious  of  all  precious  things  in  count- 
less cases. 

The  only  right  education  of  women  must  be  that 
which  rightly  provides  the  whole  environment.  The 
simpler  our  conception  of  woman,  the  more  we  un- 
derrate her  complexity  and  the  manifoldness  of  her 
needs,  the  more  certainly  shall  we  repeat  in  one  form 
or  another  the  errors  of  our  predecessors. 

Complete  living  is  a  great  phrase;  perhaps  not  for 
a  lizard  or  a  mushroom,  but  assuredly  for  men  and 

*The  modern  use  of  the  word  environment  really  dates  from  Lamarck's  original 
phrase.  In  his  discussion  of  the  characters  of  living  beings,  he  spoke  of  the  milieu 
environnant.  The  higher  the  type  of  organism  the  more  comprehensive  must  the 
term  become,  not  only  quantitatively  but  qualitatively. 


Education  for  Motherhood  159 

women.  Perhaps  it  involves  more  for  women  even 
than  for  men;  indeed  it  must  do  so  if  we  are  to  adhere 
to  our  conception  of  women  as  more  complex  than 
men,  having  all  the  possibilities  of  men  in  less  or 
greater  measure,  and  also  certain  supreme  possibilities 
of  their  own.  Whatever  complete  living  may  mean 
for  men,  it  cannot  mean  for  women  anything  less  than 
all  that  is  implied  in  Wordsworth's  great  line — 

"  Wisdom  doth  live  with  children  round  her  knees." 

That  line  was  written  in  reference  to  the  unwisdom 
of  a  man,  Napoleon,  the  greatest  murderer  in  re- 
corded time,  and  I  believe  it  to  be  true  of  men,  but  it 
is  pre-eminently  true  of  women.  There  needs  no  ex- 
cuse for  quoting  from  Herbert  Spencer,  since  we  have 
already  accepted  his  definition  of  the  subject  of  edu- 
cation, a  notable  passage  which  is  perhaps  at  the 
present  time  the  most  needed  of  all  the  wisdom  with 
which  that  great  thinker's  book  on  education  is 
filled:— 

"  The  greatest  defect  in  our  programmes  of  education  is 
entirely  overlooked.  While  much  is  being  done  in  the  de- 
tailed improvement  of  our  systems  in  respect  both  of  matter 
and  manner,  the  most  pressing  desideratum,  to  prepare  the 
young  for  the  duties  of  life,  is  tacitly  admitted  to  be  the  end 
which  parents  and  schoolmasters  should  have  in  view;  and, 
happily,  the  value  of  the  things  taught,  and  the  goodness  of 
the  methods  followed  in  teaching  them,  are  now  ostensibly 
judged  by  their  fitness  to  this  end.  The  propriety  of  substi- 
tuting for  an  exclusively  classical  training,  a  training  in  which 


160  Woman  and  Womanhood 

the  modern  languages  shall  have  a  share,  is  argued  on  this 
ground.  The  necessity  of  increasing  the  amount  of  science 
is  urged  for  like  reasons.  But  though  some  care  is  taken  to 
fit  youth  of  both  sexes  for  society  and  citizenship,  no  care 
whatever  is  taken  to  fit  them  for  the  position  of  parents. 
While  it  is  seen  that,  for  the  purpose  of  gaining  a  livelihood, 
an  elaborate  preparation  is  needed,  it  appears  to  be  thought 
that  for  the  bringing  up  of  children  no  preparation  whatever 
is  needed.  While  many  years  are  spent  by  a  boy  in  gaining 
knowledge  of  which  the  chief  value  is  that  it  constitutes  the 
education  of  a  gentleman;  and  while  many  years  are  spent  by 
a  girl  in  those  decorative  acquirements  which  fit  her  for  even- 
ing parties,  not  an  hour  is  spent  by  either  in  preparation  for 
that  gravest  of  all  responsibilities  —  the  management  of  a 
family.  Is  it  that  the  discharge  of  it  is  but  a  remote  contin- 
gency? On  the  contrary,  it  is  sure  to  devolve  on  nine  out  of 
ten.  Is  it  that  the  discharge  of  it  is  easy?  Certainly  not; 
of  all  functions  which  the  adult  has  to  fulfil,  this  is  the 
most  difficult.  Is  it  that  each  may  be  trusted  by  self-instruc- 
tion to  fit  himself,  or  herself,  for  the  office  of  parent?  No; 
not  on|y  is  the  need  for  such  self-instruction  unrecognized, 
but  |the  complexity  of  the  subject  renders  it  the  one  of  all 
in  which  self  -instruction  is  least  likely  to  succeed." 


\i  we  wsre  wise  enough,  therefore,  we  should  rec- 
pgni-ze  all  education,  in  the  great  sense  of  that  word, 
to  be  as  for  parenthood.  That  ideal  will  yet  be  rec- 
ognized and  followed  for  both  sexes,  as  it  has  for  long 
been  followed,  consciously  as  well  as  unconsciously, 
by  that  astonishing  race  which  has  survived  all  its  op- 
pressors, and  is  in  the  van  of  civilization  to-day  as 
it  was  when  it  produced  the  Mosaic  legislation.  The 
time  is  not  yet  when  one  could  accept  with  a  light  heart 


Education  for  Motherhood  l6l 

an  invitation  to  lecture  on  fatherhood  to  the  boys  at 
Eton.  Boys  to-day  are  taught  by  each  other,  and  by 
those  who  give  them  what  they  call  "  smut  jaws,"  that 
what  exists  for  fatherhood,  and  thus  for  the  whole 
destiny  of  mankind,  is  "  smut."  When  such  blasphe- 
mies pass  for  the  best  pedagogic  wisdom,  to  preach 
parenthood  as  the  goal  of  all  worthy  education  is  to 
run  the  risk  of  being  looked  upon  as  ridiculous.  But 
the  time  will  come  when  the  hideous  Empire-wrecking 
Imperialisms  of  the  present  are  forgotten,  and  when 
we  have  a  new  Patriotism — which  suggests,  first  and 
foremost,  as  that  word  well  may,  the  duty  of  father- 
hood; and  then,  perhaps,  "  smut  jaws  "  will  not  be  the 
phrase  at  Eton  for  discussion  of  those  instincts  which 
determine  the  future  of  mankind. 

But  girls  are  our  present  concern,  and  we  may  in- 
deed hope  that,  though  the  day  is  still  far  when  the 
motto  of  Eton  will  be  education  as  for  fatherhood, 
yet  the  ideal  of  education  as  for  motherhood  may  yet 
triumph  wherever  girls  are  taught  within  even  a  few 
years  to  come.  On  all  sides  to-day  we  see  the  aber- 
rations of  womanhood  in  a  hundred  forms,  and  the 
consequences  thereof.  Wrong  education  is  partly, 
beyond  a  doubt,  to  be  indicted  for  this  state  of  things, 
and  the  right  direction  is  so  clearly  indicated  by  nature 
and  by  the  deepest  intuitions  of  both  sexes  that  we 
cannot  much  longer  delay  to  take  it. 

Perhaps  the  reader  will  have  patience  whilst  for  a 
little  we  discuss  the  facts  upon  which  right  education 
for  motherhood  must  be  based.  Some  may  suppose 
that  by  education  for  womanhood  is  meant  simply  one 


162  Woman  and  Womanhood 

form  or  other  of  instruction;  say,  for  instance,  in  the 
certainly  important  matter  of  infant  feeding.  At 
present,  however,  I  am  not  thinking  of  instruction  at 
all,  but  of  education — the  leading  forth,  that  is  to  say, 
in  right  proportion  and  in  right  direction  of  the  natural 
constituents  of  the  girl.  If  we  are  to  be  right  in  our 
methods  we  must  have  some  clear  understanding  of 
what  those  constituents  are,  and  we  must  therefore  ad- 
dress ourselves  now  to  getting,  if  possible,  clear  and 
accurate  notions  of  the  material  with  which  we  have 
to  deal;  in  other  words,  we  must  discuss  the  psychology 
of  parenthood.  We  shall  perhaps  realize  then  that 
though  the  instruction  of  mothers  in  being  is  very 
necessary  and  very  important,  that  comes  in  at  the  end 
of  our  duty,  and  that  we  shall  never  achieve  what  we 
might  achieve  unless  we  begin  at  the  beginning. 


XII 

THE   MATERNAL    INSTINCT 

THE  deeds  of  men  and  women  proceed  from  cer- 
tain radical  elements  of  their  nature,  some  evidently 
noble,  others,  when  looked  at  askew,  apparently  igno- 
ble. These  elements  are  classed  as  instinctive.  We 
are  less  intelligent  than  we  think.  Reason  may  oc- 
cupy the  throne,  but  the  foundations  upon  which  that 
throne  is  based  are  not  of  her  making.  To  change 
the  image,  reason  is  the  pilot,  not  the  gale  or  the  en- 
gine. She  does  not  determine  the  goal,  but  only  the 
course  to  that  goal.  We  are  what  our  nature  makes 
us ;  our  likes  and  our  dislikes  determine  our  acts,  and 
we  are  guided  to  our  self-determined  ends  by  means 
of  our  intelligence.  More  often,  indeed,  we  use  our 
intelligence  merely  to  justify  to  ourselves  the  likes  and 
dislikes,  the  action  and  the  inaction,  which  our  instinc- 
tive tendencies  have  determined. 

Many  of  our  natural  instincts,  impulses,  and  emo- 
tions bear  only  remotely  upon  our  present  inquiry;  as, 
for  instance,  the  instinct  of  flight  and  the  emotion  of 
fear,  the  instinct  of  curiosity  and  the  emotion  of  won- 
der, the  instinct  of  pugnacity  and  the  emotion  of  an- 
ger. Certain  others,  however,  are  not  merely  radical 
and  permanent  parts  of  our  nature,  but  determine  hu- 

163 


164  Woman  and  Womanhood 

man  existence,  the  greater  part  of  its  failures  and  suc- 
cesses, its  folly  and  wisdom,  its  history  and  its  destiny. 
Two  of  these — the  parental  and  racial  instincts — we 
must  carefully  consider  here,  and  also,  very  briefly,  a 
supposed  third,  the  filial  instinct.  I  am  inclined  to 
question  whether  such  a  specific  entity  as  the  filial  in- 
stinct exists  at  all;  it  is  rather,  I  believe,  a  product,  by 
transmutation,  of  the  parental  instinct  which,  in  its  va- 
rious forms  and  potencies  and  through  the  tender  emo- 
tion which  is  its  counterpart  in  the  affective  realm  of 
our  natures,  is  the  noblest,  finest,  and  most  promising 
ingredient  of  our  constitution. 

Instinct  and  Emotion. — We  must  be  sure,  in  the  first 
place,  that  we  have  a  sound  idea  of  what  we  mean  by 
the  word  "  instinct."  It  is  absurd,  for  instance,  to 
speak  of  "  acquiring  a  political  instinct " — or  any 
other.  That  is  the  most  erroneous  possible  use  of  the 
word.  An  instinct  is  eminently  something  which  can- 
not be  "  acquired";  it  is  native  if  anything  is  native; 
as  native  as  the  nose  or  the  backbone.  Instincts  may 
be  developed  or  repressed;  it  is  the  great  mark  of  man 
that  in  him  they  may  even  be  transmuted — but  ac- 
quired never. 

When  we  come  to  examine  the  laws  of  activity  we 
find  that,  on  the  application  of  certain  kinds  of  stimu- 
lus, there  are  certain  very  definite  responses,  and  these 
we  call  instinctive.  If  the  arm  or  the  leg  of  a  sleeper 
be  stroked  or  touched,  or  a  cold  breath  of  air  blows 
thereon,  it  will  be  withdrawn,  and  such  withdrawal  is 
what  we  call  a  reflex  action.  Now,  an  instinctive  ac- 
tion, as  Herbert  Spencer  saw  long  ago,  is  a  "  complex 


The  Maternal  Instinct  165 

reflex  action."  It  differs  from  a  simple  reflex,  a  mere 
twitch,  such  as  winking,  but  it  is  a  complicated,  and 
possibly  prolonged,  action,  which  is,  at  bottom,  of  the 
nature  of  a  reflex.  One  may  instance  the  instinct  of 
flight,  which  is  correlated  with  fear.  In  crossing  the 
street  we  hear  "  toot,  toot/'  and  we  run.  We  do  not 
ratiocinate,  we  run.  All  the  primary  instincts  of  man- 
kind act  similarly.  Take,  for  contrast,  the  instinct 
of  curiosity.  Consider  a  child  watching  a  mechanical 
toy;  the  impulse  of  this  instinct  of  curiosity  is  such  that 
he  goes  to  the  thing  and  examines  it.  By  means  of 
the  transmutation,  which  it  is  the  prerogative  of  man 
to  effect,  this  instinct  may  work  out  into  a  lifetime  de- 
voted to  the  study  of  Nature.  There  is  an  unbroken 
sequence  from  the  interest  in  the  unknown  which  we 
see  in  a  kitten  or  a  child  up  to  that  which  triumphs  in 
a  Newton  or  a  Darwin. 

Thus  we  begin  to  learn  that  human  nature  is  largely 
a  collection  of  instincts,  more  or  less  correlated,  and 
that  at  bottom  we  act  on  our  instincts — in  accordance 
with  certain  innate  predilections,  likings,  and  dislik- 
ings  with  which  we  were  born,  and  which  we  have  in- 
herited from  our  ancestors.  Indissolubly  associated 
therewith  is  what  we  call  emotion.  For  instance,  in 
the  exercise  of  the  instinct  of  curiosity  we  feel  a  cer- 
tain emotion,  which  we  call  wonder.  There  is  an  ig- 
noble wonder  and  there  is  a  noble  wonder;  but  whether 
it  be  an  astronomer  watching  the  stars,  or  the  crowd 
at  a  cinematograph  show,  there  exists  an  association 
between  the  emotion  of  wonder  and  the  instinct  of  cu- 
riosity. Dr.  McDougalJ,  of  Oxford,  elaborated  some 


l66  Woman  and  Womanhood 

few  years  ago,  and  has  now  established,  an  extremely 
important  theory  of  the  relation  between  instinct  and 
emotion.  He  has  shown  that  our  emotions  are  cor- 
related with  our  instincts;  that  the  emotion  is  the  in- 
ward or  subjective  side  of  the  working  of  the  instinct. 
Thus  an  instinct  is  more  than  a  "  complex  reflex  ac- 
tion " ;  it  is  more  than  merely  that,  on  hearing  some- 
thing, or  seeing  something,  certain  muscles  are  thrown 
into  action,  because  along  with  the  action  there  is  emo- 
tion, and  this  is  a  natural  and  necessary  correlation. 
We  should  do  well  to  carry  about  with  us,  as  part  of 
our  mental  furniture,  this  idea  of  the  correlation  be- 
tween instinct  and  emotion. 

Now,  if  it  be  true  that  man  is  not  primarily  a  ra- 
tional animal,  if  he  be  rather,  au  fond,  a  bundle,  an 
assemblage,  an  organism  of  instincts,  it  behoves  us  to 
recognize  in  ourselves  and  in  others  the  primary  in- 
stincts, because  from  them  flows  all  that  goes  to  make 
up  human  nature,  whether  it  be  good  or  evil.  Amongst 
these,  certainly,  is  the  parental  instinct. 

Let  us  first  consider  its  development  in  the  indi- 
vidual, for  this  bears  on  the  question  when  to  begin 
education  for  motherhood.  We  find  it  very  early  in- 
deed. It  is  commonly  asserted  that  the  doll  instinct 
is  the  precursor,  the  infantile  and  childish  form,  of  the 
parental  instinct.  Some  psychologists,  as  we  have 
already  noted,  assure  us  that  this  is  wrong,  that  a  small 
child  will  be  just  as  content  to  play  with  anything  else 
as  with  a  doll;  that  the  child  gets  fond  of  its  possession, 
and  that  what  we  are  really  witnessing  is  the  instinct 
of  acquisitiveness.  The  rest  may  reason  and  welcome, 


The  Maternal  Instinct  167 

but  those  who  are  fathers  know.  We  have  only  to 
watch  a  child  to  learn  that  it  very  soon  differentiates 
its  doll,  or  rather,  the  shapeless  mass  it  calls  its  doll, 
from  other  things.  Try  with  your  own  children  and 
see  if  you  can  get  them  to  like  anything  else  as  well  as 
they  like  a  doll.  They  will  not.  There  are  few  set- 
tled questions  as  yet  in  psychology,  but  we  may  cer- 
tainly be  sure  that  the  parental  instinct  and  its  asso- 
ciated emotion  may  be  unmistakably  displayed  as  the 
master-passion  in  a  child  who  is  not  yet  two  years  old. 
In  a  case  where  the  possibility  of  imitation  was  ex- 
cluded I  have  seen  a,  little  girl  adore  a  small  baby, 
stroke  its  hands,  whisper  quasi-maternal  sweet  noth- 
ings to  it — "  mother  it,"  in  short — as  plainly  as  I 
have  seen  the  sun  at  noon;  and  there  is  no  reason  to 
suppose  that  this  deeply  impressive  spectacle  was  ex- 
ceptional. 

The  parental  instinct  is  connected  subtly  with  the 
racial  instinct;  and  it  is  undisputed  that,  except  in  ut-i 
terly  degraded  persons,  the  object  of  the  feelings  which 
are  associated  with  the  racial  instinct  becomes  the  ob- 
ject of  the  feelings  which  are  associated  with  the  paren- 
tal instinct.  The  object  of  the  emotion  of  sex  becomes 
also  the  object  of  tender  emotion.  Thus  "  love,"  in 
its  lower  sense,  becomes  exalted  by  Love  in  the  noble 
sense. 

There  is  also  in  us  an  instinct  of  pugnacity,  which 
especially  appears  when  the  working  of  any  other  in- 
stinct is  thwarted.  We  know  that  the  parental  in- 
stinct when  thwarted,  as  in  the  tigress  robbed  of  her 
whelps,  shows  itself  in  pugnacity — even  in  the  female, 


168  Woman  and  Womanhood 

which  commonly  has  no  pugnacity ;  and  in  the  emotion 
of  anger.  It  is  a  reasonable  supposition  that  the  fine 
anger,  the  passion  for  justice,  the  passion  against,  say, 
slavery  or  cruelty  to  children — that  these  indignations 
which  move  the  world  are  at  bottom  traceable  to  the 
workings  of  the  outraged  parental  instinct.  When 
we  have  tender  emotion  towards  a  child,  or  towards  an 
animal,  whatever  it  be,  this  is  really  the  subjective  side 
of  the  working  of  the  parental  instinct.  Now,  tender 
emotion  is  what  has  made  and  makes  everything  that 
is  good  in  the  individual,  and  in  human  society.  It  is 
the  basis  of  all  morality — all  morality  that  is  real 
morality — everything  that  permits  us  to  hold  up  our 
heads  at  all,  or  to  hope  for  the  future  of  the  race. 
That  is  why  the  study  of  the  parental  instinct,  its  cor- 
relate or  source,  is  as  important  and  serious  as  any 
that  can  be  imagined. 

Let  us  begin  by  a  quotation  from  Dr.  McDougall, 
author  of  the  best  and  most  searching  account  of  this 
instinct  yet  written: — 

"  The  maternal  instinct,  which  impels  the  mother  to  pro- 
tect and  cherish  her  young,  is  common  to  almost  all  the  higher 
species  of  animals.  Among  the  lower  animals  the  perpetua- 
tion of  the  species  is  generally  provided  for  by  the  produc- 
tion of  an  immense  number  of  eggs  or  young  (in  some  species 
of  fish  a  single  adult  produces  more  than  a  million  eggs), 
which  are  left  entirely  unprotected,  and  are  so  preyed  upon 
by  other  creatures  that  on  the  average  but  one  or  two  attain 
maturity.  As  we  pass  higher  up  the  animal  scale,  we  find 
the  number  of  eggs  or  young  more  and  more  reduced,  and 
the  diminution  of  their  number  compensated  for  by  parental 


The  Maternal  Instinct  169 

protection.  At  the  lowest  stage  this  protection  may  consist 
in  the  provision  of  some  merely  physical  shelter,  as  in  the  case 
of  those  animals  that  carry  their  eggs  attached  in  some  way 
to  their  bodies.  But,  except  at  this  lowest  stage,  the  protec- 
tion afforded  to  the  young  always  involves  some  instinctive 
adaptation  of  the  parent's  behaviour.  We  may  see  this  even 
among  the  fishes,  some  of  which  deposit  their  eggs  in  rude 
nests  and  watch  over  them,  driving  away  creatures  that  might 
prey  upon  them.  From  this  stage  onwards  protection  of  off- 
spring becomes  increasingly  psychical  in  character,  involves 
more  profound  modification  of  the  parent's  behaviour,  and  a 
more  prolonged  period  of  more  effective  guardianship.  The 
highest  stage  is  reached  by  those  species  in  which  each  female 
produces  at  a  birth  but  one  or  two  young,  and  protects  them 
so  efficiently  that  most  of  the  young  born  reach  maturity;  the 
maintenance  of  the  species  thus  becomes  in  the  main  the  work 
of  the  parental  instinct.  In  such  species  the  protection  and 
cherishing  of  the  young  is  the  constant  and  all-absorbing  oc- 
cupation of  the  mother,  to  which  she  devotes  all  her  energies, 
and  in  the  course  of  which  she  will  at  any  time  undergo  priva- 
tion, pain,  and  death.  The  instinct  becomes  more  powerful  than 
any  other,  and  can  override  any  other,  even  fear  itself;  for  it 
works  directly  in  the  service  of  the  species,  while  the  other  in- 
stincts work  primarily  in  the  service  of  the  individual  life,  for 
which  Nature  cares  little.  .  .  .  When  we  follow  up  the  evolu- 
tion of  this  instinct  to  the  highest  animal  level,  we  find  among 
the  apes  the  most  remarkable  examples  of  its  operation.  Thus 
in  one  species  the  mother  is  said  to  carry  her  young  one  clasped 
in  one  arm  uninterruptedly  for  several  months,  never  letting 
go  of  it  in  all  her  wanderings.  This  instinct  is  no  less  strong 
in  many  human  mothers,  in  whom,  of  course,  it  becomes  more 
or  less  intellectualized  and  organized  as  the  most  essential 
constituent  of  the  sentiment  of  parental  love.  Like  other 
species,  the  human  species  is  dependent  upon  this  instinct  for 


170  Woman  and  Womanhood 

its  continual  existence  and  welfare.  It  is  true  that  reason, 
working  in  the  service  of  the  egotistic  impulses  and  sentiments, 
often  circumvents  the  ends  of  this  instinct  and  sets  up  habits 
which  are  incompatible  with  it.  But  when  that  occurs  on  a 
large  scale  in  any  society,  that  society  is  doomed  to  rapid  de- 
cay. But  the  instinct  itself  can  never  die  out  save  with  the 
disappearance  of  the  human  species  itself;  it  is  kept  strong 
and  effective  just  because  those  families  and  races  and  nations 
in  which  it  weakens  become  rapidly  supplanted  by  those  in 
which  it  is  strong. 

"  It  is  impossible  to  believe  that  the  operation  of  this,  the 
most  powerful  of  the  instincts,  is  not  accompanied  by  a  strong 
and  definite  emotion;  one  may  see  the  emotion  expressed  un- 
mistakably by  almost  any  mother  among  the  higher  animals, 
especially  the  birds  and  the  mammals — by  the  cat,  for  ex- 
ample, and  by  most  of  the  domestic  animals;  and  it  is  impos- 
sible to  doubt  that  this  emotion  has  in  all  cases  the  peculiar 
quality  of  the  tender  emotion  provoked  in  the  human  parent 
by  the  spectacle  of  her  helpless  offspring.  This  primary  emo- 
tion has  been  very  generally  ignored  by  the  philosophers  and 
psychologists;  that  is,  perhaps,  to  be  explained  by  the  fact 
that  this  instinct  and  its  emotion  are  in  the  main  decidedly 
weaker  in  men  than  women,  and  in  some  men,  perhaps,  alto- 
gether lacking.  We  may  even  surmise  that  the  philosophers 
as  a  class  are  men  among  whom  this  defect  of  native  endow- 
ment is  relatively  common." 

Dr.  McDougall  goes  on  to  show  how  from  this  emo- 
tion and  its  impulse  to  cherish  and  protect  spring  gen- 
erosity, gratitude,  love,  true  benevolence,  and  altru- 
istic conduct  of  every  kind;  in  it  they  have  their  main 
and  absolutely  essential  root  without  which  they  would 
not  be.  He  argues  that  the  intimate  alliance  between 


The  Maternal  Instinct  171 

tender  emotion  and  anger  is  of  great  importance  for 
the  social  life  of  man,  for  "  the  anger  invoked  in  this 
way  is  the  germ  of  all  moral  indignation,  and  on  moral 
indignation  justice  and  the  greater  part  of  public  law 
are  in  the  main  founded."  * 

The  reader  may  be  earnestly  counselled  to  acquaint 
himself  with  Dr.  McDougall's  book,  which,  in  the 
judgment  of  those  best  qualified,  definitely  advances 
the  science  of  psychology  in  its  deepest  and  most  im- 
portant aspects. 

The  Transmutation  of  Instinct. — The  last  thing 
here  meant  by  the  transmutation  of  instinct  is  that  by 
any  political  alchemy  it  is  possible — to  quote  Herbert 
Spencer's  celebrated  aphorism — to  get  golden  conduct 
out  of  leaden  instincts.  But  it  is  the  mark  of  man, 
the  intelligent  being,  that  in  him  the  instincts  are 
plastic,  and  even  capable  of  amazing  transmutations. 
In  the  lower  animals  there  is  instinct,  but  that  instinct 
is  an  almost  completely  fixed,  rigid,  and  final  thing. 
In  ourselves  there  is  a  limitless  capacity  for  the  devel- 
opment, the  humanization  of  instinct  along  many  lines, 
as  when  the  primitive  infantile  curiosity  works  out 
into  the  speculations  of  a  thinker.  In  other  words, 
we  are  educable,  the  lower  animals  are  not,  or  only 
within  very  narrow  limits. 

Yet  in  one  respect  the  lower  animals  have  the  ad- 
vantage over  us.  Their  instincts  are  often  perfect. 
We  cannot  teach  a  cat  anything  about  how  to  look 
after  a  kitten;  but  parallel  instincts  amongst  ourselves, 

*  "  An  Introduction  to  Social  Psychology,"  by  William  McDougall,  M.A.,  M.B., 
M.Sc.,  Wilde  Reader  in  Mental  Philosophy  in  the  University  of  Oxford, 


172  Woman  and  Womanhood 

though  not  less  numerous  or  potent,  are  not  perfected, 
not  sharp-cut.  In  the  cat  there  is  no  need  for  educa- 
tion; in  woman  there  is  eminent  need  for  it.  Indeed 
it  is  the  lack  of  education  that  is  largely  responsible 
for  our  large  infant  mortality;  not  that  woman  is  in- 
ferior to  the  cat,  but  that,  being  not  instinctive  but 
intelligent,  she  requires  education  in  motherhood. 

Human  instincts  in  general  are  capable  of  modifi- 
cation; sometimes  they  may  take  bizarre  forms,  and 
so  we  find  that  there  are  people  without  children  of 
their  own — more  commonly  women — who  will  have 
twenty  cats  in  the  house  and  look  after  them,  or  who 
will  devote  their  whole  lives  to  the  cause  of  the  rat  or 
the  rabbit,  or  whatever  it  may  be,  while  the  children  of 
men  are  dying  around  them.  These  things  are  indica- 
tions of  the  parental  instinct  centred  on  unworthy  ob- 
jects. It  is  a  common  thing  to  laugh  at  these  aberra- 
tions— thoughtlessly,  may  we  not  say?  While  or- 
phans are  to  be  found,  we  should  do  better  if  we  try 
to  bring  together  the  woman  who  needs  to  "  mother  " 
and  the  child  who  needs  to  be  "  mothered." 

Conduct  is  at  least  three-fourths  of  life,  and  the 
great  business  of  education  is  the  direction  of  con- 
duct. We  have  seen  how  modern  psychology  illumi- 
nates what  has  been  so  long  dark,  by  directing  us  to 
our  instincts  as  the  sources  of  our  needs,  and  by  show- 
ing us  that  it  is  the  possibility  of  the  education  of  in- 
stinct which  essentially  distinguishes  us  from  the  lower 
animals. 

We  must  therefore  distinguish  between  education 
for  motherhood  and  education  or  instruction  in 


The  Maternal  Instinct  173 

motherhood.  It  is  very  important  that  a  woman  should 
know  the  elements  of  infant  feeding,  but  it  is  more  im- 
portant that,  in  the  first  place,  her  whole  life  before 
she  becomes  a  mother — nay,  even  before  she  chooses 
her  child's  father — shall  centre  in  the  education  of 
her  instincts  for  motherhood.  Finding  good  evidence, 
as  we  do,  of  the  maternal  instinct  at  a  very  early  age, 
and  recognizing  its  importance  in  conduct  and  in  the 
formation  of 'ideals  long  before  the  marriage  age,  we 
are  justified  in  discussing  the  maternal  instinct  here 
instead  of  postponing  it,  as  some  might  argue,  until 
after  we  have  discussed  marriage.  There  is  nothing 
which  I  wish  to  assert  more  strongly  than  that  we  are 
radically  wrong  in  this  postponement,  which  is  indeed 
our  customary  practice.  Partly  because  we  are  blind, 
partly  because  of  our  most  imprudent  prudery,  we  ig- 
nore and  pervert  the  due  sequence  of  development,  but 
here  I  deliberately  prefer  to  follow  the  indications  of 
nature,  and  to  discuss  the  maternal  instinct  now  be- 
cause, in  the  matter  of  the  education  of  girls,  this  is 
precisely  the  most  important  subject  that  can  be  named. 

Let  us  now  note  some  popular  misconceptions  which 
cumber  our  minds  and  often  interfere  with  the  work 
of  the  reformer. 

To  begin  with  what  is  perhaps  the  oldest  of  these, 
though  indeed  scarcely  entitled  to  the  appellation  of 
popular,  let  us  assure  ourselves  once  and  for  all  that 
we  are  talking  about  a  fact  natural,  innate,  not  ac- 
quired. The  modern  criticism  of  ancient  notions  of 
human  nature,  such  as  those  expressed  in  the  theolo- 
gians' conception  of  "  conscience,"  has  inclined  some 


174  Woman  and  Womanhood 

to  the  view  that  our  best  feelings  are  indeed  not  at  all 
innate.  No  one  can  for  a  moment  analyze  conscience 
without  observing  the  immense  disparity  between  the 
facts  and  the  theologians'  theory.  And  thus  we  are 
apt  to  fall  into  the  opposite  error  of  supposing  that  our 
impulses  towards  good  action  are  entirely  the  products 
of  education,  training,  public  opinion,  and  so  forth. 
Let  the  reader  refer,  for  instance,  to  such  a  celebrated 
work  as  John  Stuart  Mill's  "  Utilitarianism,"  and  it 
will  be  seen  how  wide  of  the  mark  it  was  possible  for 
even  a  great  thinker  to  go,  when  his  ideas  of  mind  were 
unguided  by  the  light  of  evolution.  Even  in  the  great- 
est writer  of  that  time  not  a  syllable  do  we  find  as  to 
the  parental  instinct.  "  As  is  my  own  belief,"  says 
Mill,  "  the  moral  feelings  are  not  innate  but  acquired." 
Yet  we  have  seen  convincing  evidence  which  teaches 
us  that  the  moral  feelings  spring  essentially  from  the 
root  of  the  parental  instinct,  without  which  mankind 
could  not  continue  for  another  generation,  and  than 
which  there  is  nothing  more  fundamental  and  essential 
in  any  type  of  human  nature  that  can  persist. 

The  importance  of  noting  this  can  be  clearly  stated. 
We  are  here  dealing  with  something  which  is  not  for 
us  to  implant,  but  which  is  already  part  of  the  plant, 
so  to  speak,  and  which  it  is  for  us  to  tend.  Like  other 
innate  features  of  mankind,  its  transmission  from  gen- 
eration to  generation  is  notably  independent  of  the 
effects  of  education,  the  effects  of  use  and  disuse. 
This  is  a  difficult  thing  of  which  to  persuade  people, 
but  it  is  the  fact.  Education,  environment,  training, 
opportunity,  habit,  public  opinion,  social  prejudice — all 


The  Maternal  Instinct  175 

these  and  such  other  influences  may  and  do  affect  the 
maternal  instinct  in  the  individual  for  good  or  for 
evil.  No  fact  is  more  certain  or  important,  and  that 
is  precisely  why  we  must  study  this  instinct.  But  the 
effect  upon  the  individual  does  not  involve  any  ef- 
fect upon  the  native  constitution  of  the  individual's 
children.  From  age  to  age  the  general  facts  and  fea- 
tures of  the  human  backbone  persist.  We  do  not  ex- 
pect to  find  notable  differences  between  the  generations 
in  such  a  radical  feature  of  our  constitution,  no  matter 
what  particular  habits  of  posture,  play,  and  the  like  we 
"adopt.  The  maternal  instinct  is  scarcely  less  funda- 
mental; it  is  certainly  no  whit  less  essential  for  the 
species.  It  is  the  very  backbone  of  our  psychological 
constitution.  Thus  it  is  nonsense  to  assert  that,  for 
instance,  women  are  becoming  less  motherly,  if  by  this 
is  meant  that  the  maternal  instinct  is  failing.  That 
bad  education  may  affect  it  for  evil  no  one  can  ques- 
tion, but  we  must  distinguish  between  nature  and  nur- 
ture. We  may  be  perfectly  confident  that  so  far  as 
the  natural  material  of  girl-childhood  and  girlhood  is 
concerned,  there  is  no  falling  off;  there  will  not,  for 
there  cannot,  be  any  falling  off  either  in  the  quality 
or  in  the  quantity  of  the  maternal  instinct.  On  the 
contrary,  it  can,  and  will  later  be  shown  that  through 
the  action  of  heredity  this  instinct  will  be  strengthened 
in  the  future,  just  in  so  far  as  motherhood  becomes 
more  and  more  a  special  privilege  of  those  women  in 
whom  this  instinct  is  strong,  and  who  become  mothers 
for  the  only  good  reason — that  they  love  to  have  chil- 
dren of  their  own. 

\ 
\ 


176  Woman  and  Womanhood 

I  protest,  then,  against  many  critics,  especially  those 
who  used  to  raise  their  now  silent  voices  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  beginnings  of  the  infant  mortality  cam- 
paign a  few  years  ago,  that  we  who  criticize  modern 
motherhood  and  find  in  its  defects  the  causes  of  many 
and  great  evils,  as  we  do,  are  asserting  nothing  what- 
ever against  the  women  of  this  day  as  compared  with 
the  women  of  former  days,  so  far  as  their  natural  con- 
stitution is  concerned;  and  if  we  criticize  the  results  of 
bad  education,  that  is  mainly  criticism  of  the  blindness, 
the  stupidity,  and  the  carelessness  of  men,  who  are  re- 
sponsible for  the  parodies  of  education  and  the  mis- 
direction of  ideals  which  have  so  grossly  afflicted,  and 
still  afflict,  childhood  and  girlhood  in  all  civilized  com- 
munities. 

Yet,  again,  there  is  another  misconception  of  the 
maternal  instinct  as  it  exists  in  our  own  species,  which 
is  still  more  serious  in  its  results.  The  argument  is 
that,  not  only  does  the  maternal  instinct  exist,  but  it  is 
a  sure  guide  to  its  possessor,  who  therefore  requires 
no  instruction — least  of  all  at  the  hands  of  men.  A 
woman  being  a  woman  knows  all  about  babies,  a  man 
being  a  man  knows  nothing.  Against  this  error  the 
present  writer  has  endeavoured  to  inveigh  for  many 
years  past,  and  it  is  always  retorted  that  insistence 
upon  the  ignorance  of  mothers  is  a  very  unwarrantable 
piece  of  discourtesy.  It  is  nothing  of  the  sort.  Na- 
tive ignorance  is  the  mark  of  intelligence.  It  is  just 
because  instinct  in  us  has  not  the  perfection  of  detail 
which  it  has  in,  say,  the  insects,  that  it  is  capable  of  that 
limitless  modification  which  shows  itself  in  educated  in- 


The  Maternal  Instinct  177 

telligence,  and  all  that  educated  intelligence  has 
achieved  and  will  yet  achieve.  It  may  be  permitted 
to  quote  from  a  former  statement  of  this  point : — * 

*  The  mother  has  only  the  maternal  instinct  in  its 
essence.  That  could  not  be  permitted  to  lapse  by  nat- 
ural selection,  since  humanity  could  never  have  been 
evolved  at  all  if  women  did  not  love  babies.  But  of 
all  details  she  is  bereft.  She  has  instead  an  immeasur- 
ably greater  thing,  intelligence,  but  whilst  intelligence 
can  learn  everything  it  has  everything  to  learn.  Sub- 
human instinct  can  learn  nothing,  but  is  perfect  from 
the  first  within  its  impassable  limits.  It  is  this  lapse 
of  instinctive  aptitude  that  constitutes  the  cardinal  dif- 
ficulty against  which  we  are  assembled.  The  mother 
cat  not  merely  has  a  far  less  helpless  young  creature 
to  succour,  but  she  has  a  far  superior  inherent  or  in- 
stinctive equipment;  she  knows  the  best  food  for  her 
kitten,  she  does  not  give  it  *  the  same  as  we  had  our- 
selves ' — as  the  human  mother  tells  the  coroner — but 
her  own  breast  invariably.  None  of  us  can  teach  her 
anything  as  to  washing  her  kitten,  or  keeping  it  warm. 
She  can  even  play  with  it  and  so  educate  it,  in  so  far 
as  it  needs  education.  There  are  mothers  in  all  classes 
of  the  community  who  should  be  ashamed  to  look  a 
tabby  cat  in  the  face." 

The  human  mother  has  instinctive  love  and  the  unin- 
structed  intelligence  which  is  the  form,  at  once  weak 
and  incalculably  strong,  that  instinct  so  largely  as- 
sumes in  mankind.  This  cardinal  distinction  between 

*  From  the  writer's  paper,  "The  Human  Mother,"  in  the  Report  of  the  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  National  Conference  on  Infantile  Mortality,  1908,  p.  30. 


178  Woman  and  Womanhood 

the  human  and  all  sub-human  mothers  is  habitually 
ignored,  it  being  assumed  that  the  mother,  as  a  mother, 
knows  what  is  best  for  her  child.  But  experience  con- 
curs with  comparative  psychology  in  showing  that  the 
human  mother,  just  because  she  is  human,  intelligent, 
which  means  more  than  instinctive,  does  not  know. 
This  is  the  theory  upon  which  all  our  practice  is  to 
be  based,  and  upon  which  the  need  for  it  mainly 
depends.  We  must  never  forget  the  cardinal  pecu- 
liarity of  human  motherhood,  its  absolute  dependence 
upon  education,  needless  for  the  cat,  needed  by  the  hu- 
man mother  in  every  particular,  small  and  great,  since 
she  relies  upon  intelligence  alone,  which  is  only  a  po- 
tentiality and  a  possibility  until  it  be  educated.  Edu- 
cate it,  and  the  product  transcends  the  cat,  and  not  only 
the  cat,  but  all  other  living  things.  As  Coleridge 
said-^ 

"  A  mother  is  a  mother  still, 
The  holiest  thing  alive." 

Perhaps  the  foregoing  will  make  it  clear  that  to  in- 
sist upon  the  natural  ignorance  of  the  human  mother 
and  upon  the  necessity  for  adding  instruction  to  the 
maternal  instinct,  and  even  to  make  comparisons  with 
the  cat  (which  are,  in  point  of  fact,  quite  worth  mak- 
ing, even  though  some  women  resent  them)  is  in  no 
way  to  depreciate  or  decry  womanhood,  but  simply  to 
demonstrate  that  it  is  human  and  not  animal,  suffering 
from  the  disabilities  or  necessities  which  are  involved 
in  the  possession  of  the  limitless  possibilities  of  man- 
kind. 


The  Maternal  Instinct  179 

What,  then,  is  it  in  our  power  to  do ;  and  how  are 
we  to  do  it?  It  may  be  argued  that  if  the  maternal 
instinct  is  a  thing  which  cannot  be  made  or  acquired, 
our  study  of  it  has  little  relation  to  practice.  But  in- 
deed it  is  eminently  practical. 

For,  in  the  first  place,  this  priceless  possession,  this 
parental  instinct  and  tenderness,  is  inheritable.  We 
know  by  observation  amongst  ourselves  that  hardness 
and  tenderness  are  to  be  found  running  through  fami- 
lies— are  things  which  are  transmissible.  Let  us,  then, 
make  parenthood  the  most  responsible,  the  most  de- 
liberate, the  most  self-conscious  thing  in  life,  so  that 
there  shall  be  children  born  to  those  who  love  children, 
and  only  to  those  who  love  children,  to  those  who  have 
the  parental  instinct  naturally  strong,  and  who  will, 
on  the  average,  transmit  a  high  measure  of  it  to  their 
offspring.  In  a  generation  bred  on  these  principles — 
a  generation  consisting  only  of  babies  who  were  loved 
before  they  were  born — there  would  be  a  proportion 
of  sympathy,  of  tender  feeling,  and  of  all  those  great, 
abstract,  world-creating  passions  which  are  evolved 
from  the  tender  emotion,  such  as  no  age  hitherto  has 
seen. 

It  was  necessary  to  insert  this  eugenic  paragraph 
because  it  expresses  the  central  principle  of  all  real 
reform,  as  fundamental  and  all-important  as  it  is  un- 
known to  all  political  parties,  and  I  fear  to  nearly  all 
philanthropists  as  well.  But,  for  the  present,  our  im- 
mediate concern  is  the  application,  if  such  be  possible, 
of  our  knowledge  of  the  parental  instinct  to  the  edu- 
cation of  girls.  Being  indeed  an  instinct  it  can  be 


180  Woman  and  Womanhood 

neither  made  nor  acquired,  but,  like  every  other  factor 
of  humanity  that  is  given  by  inheritance,  it  depends 
upon  the  conditions  in  which  it  finds  itself.  Education 
being  the  provision  of  an  environment,  there  is  no 
higher  task  for  the  educator  than  to  provide  the  right 
environment  for  the  maternal  instinct  in  adolescence. 
We  are  to  look  upon  it  as  at  once  delicate  and  ineradi- 
cable. These  are  adjectives  which  may  seem  incom- 
patible, yet  they  may  both  be  verified.  Any  one  will 
testify  that,  in  a  given  environment,  say  that  of  high 
school  or  university  or  that  of  the  worst  types  of  what 
is  called  society,  the  maternal  instinct  may  then  and 
there,  and  for  that  period,  become  a  nonentity  in  many 
a  girl.  Hence  we  are  entitled  to  say  that  it  is  delicate ; 
much  more  delicate,  for  instance,  than  what  we  have 
agreed  to  call  the  racial  instinct,  which  is  far  more  im- 
perious and  by  no  means  so  easily  to  be  suppressed. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  just  because  this  is  an  in- 
stinct, part  of  the  fundamental  constitution,  and  not  a 
something  planted  from  without,  it  is  ineradicable.  I 
doubt  whether  even  in  the  most  abandoned  female 
drunkard  it  would  not  be  possible  to  find,  when  the 
right  environment  was  provided,  that  the  maternal  in- 
stinct was  still  undestroyed.  One  is,  of  course,  not 
speaking  of  that  rare  and  aberrant  variety  of  women 
in  whom  the  instinct  is  naturally  weak — naturally  weak 
as  distinguished  from  the  atrophy  induced  by  improper 
nurture. 

Our  business,  then,  having  recognized,  so  to  speak, 
the  natural  history  of  this  instinct,  and  further,  having 
come  to  realize  its  stupendous  importance  for  the  in- 


The  Maternal  Instinct  181 

dividual  and  the  race,  is  to  tend  it  assiduously  as 
the  very  highest  and  most  precious  thing  in  the  girls 
for  whom  we  care.  As  educators  we  must  seek  to 
provide  the  environment  in  which  this  instinct  can 
flourish.  It  is  a  good  thing  to  be  an  elder  sister,  not 
merely  because  the  girl  has  opportunities  of  learning 
the  ways  of  babies  and  the  details  of  their  needs,  but 
for  a  far  deeper  reason.  Babies  do  have  very  detailed 
and  urgent  needs,  but  these  can  be  learnt  without  much 
difficulty,  and,  if  necessary,  at  very  short  notice.  More 
important  is  it  for  the  whole  development  of  the  char- 
acter and  for  the  making  of  the  worthiest  womanhood 
that  an  elder  sister  is  provided  with  an  environment  in 
which  her  maternal  instinct  can  grow  and  grow  in  grace. 
Much  might  be  said  on  this  head  as  to  some  of  our 
present  educational  practices.  The  kind  of  education- 
ist with  whom  no  one  would  trust  a  poodle  for  half  an 
hour  may  and  does  constantly  assume,  on  a  scale  in- 
volving millions  of  children,  from  year  to  year,  that 
all  is  well  if  the  girl  be  taken  from  home  and  put  into 
a  school  and  made  to  learn  by  heart,  or  at  any  rate  by 
rote,  the  rubbish  with  which  our  youth  is  fed  even  yet 
in  the  great  name  of  education:  though  perchance 
whilst  she  is  thus  being  injured  in  body  and  mind  and 
character,  she  might  at  home  be  playing  the  little 
mother,  helping  to  make  the  home  a  home,  serving  the 
highest  interests  of  her  parents,  her  younger  brothers 
and  sisters  and  herself  at  the  same  time — not  to  men- 
tion the  unborn.  Such  a  protest  as  this,  however,  will 
be  little  heeded.  There  is  no  political  party  which 
Cares  about  education  or  even  wants  to  know  in  what 


182  Woman  and  Womanhood 

it  consists.  The  most  persistent  and  clever  and  re- 
sourceful of  those  parties — of  which,  I  fear,  the  Fa- 
bian Society  is  far  too  good  to  be  representative — 
only  half  believes  in  the  family,  and  is  daily,  and 
ever  with  more  lamentable  success,  seeking  to  substi- 
tute for  the  home  some  collective  device  or  other  pre- 
cisely as  rational  as  that  scheme  of  Plato's  whereby  the 
babies  were  to  be  shuffled  so  that  no  mother  should 
recognize  her  own  baby,  while  the  fathers,  need  it  be 
said,  were  to  be  as  gloriously  irresponsible  as  under 
the  schemes  for  the  endowment  of  motherhood.  "  So- 
cialism intervenes  between  the  children  and  the  par- 
ents. .  .  .  Socialism  in  fact  is  the  State  family.  The 
old  family  of  the  private  individual  must  vanish  be- 
fore it,  just  as  the  old  waterworks  of  private  enter- 
prise, or  the  old  gas  company.  They  are  incompati- 
ble with  it."  Thus  Mr.  H.  G.  Wells. 

Whilst  this  sort  of  thing  passes  for  thinking,  it  is  a 
task  that  has  little  promise  in  it  to  demand  a  return 
to  the  study  of  human  nature,  and  insist  that  only  by 
obeying  it  can  we  command  it,  as  Bacon  said  of  Nature 
at  large.  Meanwhile  the  madness  proceeds  apace; 
nursery-schools,  wretched  parody  of  the  nursery,  are 
advocated  at  length  in  even  Fabian  tracts,  and  the 
writer  who  suggests  that  an  elder  sister  may  be  receiv- 
ing the  highest  kind  of  education  in  staying  at  home 
and  helping  her  mother,  would  sound  almost  to  him- 
self like  an  echo  from  the  dead  past  did  he  not  know 
that  neither  a  Plato  nor  a  million  tons  of  moderns  can 
walk  through  human  nature  or  any  other  fact  as  if  it 
were  not  there. 


The  Maternal  Instinct  183 

Whatever  be  our  duty  to  the  girl  of  the  working- 
classes,  no  man  can  deny  the  importance  of  performing 
it  aright.  She  will  become  the  wife  of  the  working- 
man.  From  her  thus  flows  most  of  the  birth-rate.  If 
our  education  of  her  is  wrong,  it  is  a  very  great  wrong 
for  millions  of  individuals  and  for  the  whole  of  society. 
But  let  us  look  at  the  case  of*her  more  fortunate  sister. 

The  girl  of  the  more  fortunate  classes  is  certain  to 
be  well  cared  for  in  the  matter  of  air  and  food  and 
light  and  exercise.  We  have  already  seen  how  this 
matter  of  exercise  requires  to  be  qualified  and  deter- 
mined as  for  motherhood — that  is,  unless  we  desire 
most  suicidally  to  educate  all  the  most  promising  stocks 
of  the  nation  out  of  existence.  But  now  what  do  we 
owe  to  her  in  the  matter  of  providing  the  right  kind  of 
intellectual,  moral,  spiritual,  psychical  environment? 
It  is  a  pity  to  flounder  with  so  many  adjectives,  but 
nearly  all  the  available  ones  are  forsworn  and  fail  to 
express  my  meaning.  Let  us,  however,  speak  of  the 
spiritual  environment,  seeking  to  free  that  word  from 
all  its  lamentable  associations  of  superstition  and  cant, 
and  to  associate  it  rather  with  a  humanized  kind  of 
religion  that  deals  with  humanity  as  made  by,  living 
upon,  and  destined  for,  this  earth,  whatever  unseen 
worlds  there  may  or  may  not  be  to  conquer. 

It  is  our  business,  then,  to  provide  the  spiritual  en- 
vironment in  which  the  maternal  instinct  is  favoured 
and  seen  to  be  supremely  honourable.  If  in  the 
"  best  "  girls'  schools  ideas  of  marriage  and  babies  are 
ridiculed,  the  sooner  these  schools  be  rubbed  down 
again  into  the  soil,  the  better.  There  is  no  need  to 


184  Woman  and  Womanhood 

substitute  one  form  of  cant  for  another,  but  it  is  pos- 
sible— possible  even  though  the  head-mistress  should 
be  a  spinster,  for  whom  physical  motherhood  has  not 
been  and  never  will  be — to  incorporate  in  the  very 
spirit  of  the  school,  as  part  of  its  public  opinion,  no  less 
potent  though  its  power  be  not  consciously  felt,  the 
ideals  of  real  and  complete  womanhood,  which  mean 
nothing  less  than  the  consecration  of  the  individual  to 
the  future,  and  the  belief  that  such  consecration  serves 
not  only  the  future  but  also  the  highest  satisfaction  of 
her  best  self. 

If  it  were  our  present  task  to  define  and  specify  the 
details  of  a  school  in  which  girls  should  be  educated 
for  womanhood,  for  motherhood,  and  the  future,  it 
would  not  be  difficult,  I  think,  to  show  how  the  ser- 
vices of  painting  and  sculpture,  of  poetry  and  prose, 
should  be  enlisted.  A  word  or  two  of  outline  may  be 
permitted. 

There  is,  for  instance,  a  noble  Madonna  of  Botti- 
celli which  is  supremely  great,  not  because  of  the  skill 
of  the  painter's  hand,  nor  yet  the  delicacy  of  his  eye, 
but  because  of  the  spirit  which  they  express.  Botti- 
celli speaks  across  the  centuries,  and  is  none  other  than 
an  earlier  voice  uttering  the  words  of  Coleridge,  teach- 
ing that  a  mother  is  the  holiest  thing  alive.  The  master 
may  or  may  not  have  perceived  that  the  Madonna  was 
a  symbol;  that  what  he  believed  of  one  holy  mother 
was  worth  believing  just  in  so  far  as  it  serves  to  make 
all  motherhood  holy  and  all  men  servants  thereof. 
The  painter  can  scarcely  have  looked  at  his  model  and 
appreciated  her  fitness  for  his  pirrpose  without  realiz- 


The  Maternal  Instinct  185 

ing  that  he  was  concerned  with  depicting  a  truth  not 
local  and  unique,  but  universal  and  commonplace. 
Whether  or  not  the  painter  saw  this,  we  have  no  ex- 
cuse for  not  seeing  it.  Copies  of  such  a  painting  as 
this  should  be  found  in  every  girls7  school  throughout 
the  world. 

Girls  learn  drawing  and  painting  at  school,  and 
these  are  amongst  the  numerous  subjects  on  which  the 
present  writer  is  entitled  to  no  technical  or  critical 
opinion.  But  he  sometimes  supposes  that  a  painting 
is  not  necessarily  the  worse  because  it  represents  a 
noble  thing,  and  that  it  may  even  be  a  worthier  human 
occupation  to  portray  the  visage  of  a  living  man  or 
woman  than  the  play  of  light  upon  a  dead  wall  or  a 
dead  partridge.  It  might  even  be  argued  by  the 
wholly  inexpert  that  if  the  business  of  art  is  with 
beauty,  the  art  is  higher,  other  things  being  equal,  in 
proportion  as  the  beauty  it  portrays  is  of  a  higher 
order.  Thus  in  the  painting  of  women,  the  ignorant 
commentator  sometimes  asks  himself  in  what  supreme 
sense  it  was  worth  while  for  an  artist  to  expend  his 
powers  upon  the  portrait  of  some  society  fool  who 
could  pay  him  twelve  hundred  pounds  therefor;  or  in 
what  supreme  sense  a  painter  can  be  called  an  artist 
who  prefers  such  a  task,  and  the  flesh-pots,  to  the  por- 
trayal of  womanhood  at  its  highest.  There  are  attri- 
butes of  womanhood  which  directly  serve  human  life, 
present  and  to  come — attributes  of  vitality  and  faith- 
fulness, attributes  of  body  and  bosom,  of  mind  and  of 
feeling,  which  it  is  within  the  power  of  the  great  artist 
to  portray;  and  it  is  fn  worthily  portraying  the  greatest 


1 86  Woman  and  Womanhood 

things,  and  in  this  alone,  that  he  transcends  the  status 
of  the  decorator. 

It  is  worth  while  also  to  refer  here  to  sculpture; 
something  can  be  taught  by  its  means.  The  Venus  of 
Milo  is  not  only  a  great  work  of  art;  it  is  also  a  repre- 
sentation of  the  physiological  ideal.  Its  model  was  a 
woman  eminently  capable  of  motherhood.  The  corset 
is  beyond  question  undesirable  from  every  point  of 
view,  and  it  may  be  of  service  by  means  of  such  a  statue 
as  this  to  teach  the  girl's  eye  what  are  the  right  pro- 
portions of  the  body.  She  is  constantly  being  faced 
with  gross  and  preposterous  perversions  of  the  female 
figure  as  they  are  to  be  seen  in  the  fashion  plates  of 
every  feminine  journal.  It  is  as  well  that  she  should 
have  opportunities  of  occasionally  seeing  something 
better. 

A  note  upon  the  corset  may  not  be  out  of  place  here. 
We  know  that  its  use  is  of  no  small  antiquity.  We 
have  lately  come  to  learn  that  civilization  stepped 
across  to  Europe  from  Asia,  using  Crete  as  a  stepping- 
stone;  and  in  frescoes  found  in  the  palace  of  Minos,  at 
Knossos,  by  Dr.  Arthur  Evans,  we  find  that  the  corset 
was  employed  to  distort  the  female  figure  nearly  four 
thousand  years  ago,  as  it  is  to-day.  There  must  be 
some  clue  deep  in  human  nature  to  the  persistence  of  a 
custom  which  is  in  itself  so  absurd.  Those  who  have 
studied  the  work  of  such  writers  as  Westermarck,  and 
who  cannot  but  agree  that  on  the  whole  he  is  right 
in  the  contention  that  each  sex  desires  to  accentuate 
the  features  of  its  sex,  will  be  prepared  to  accept  Dr. 
Havelock  Ellis's  interpretation  of  the  corset.  By  con- 


The  Maternal  Instinct  187 

stricting  the  waist  it  accentuates  the  salience  of  the 
bosom  and  hips.  This  may  simply  be  an  expression 
of  the  desire  to  emphasize  sex,  but  it  may  with  still 
more  insight  be  looked  upon,  as  the  latter  writer  has 
suggested,  as  the  insertion  of  a  claim  to  capacity  for 
motherhood.  This  claim  is  of  course  unconscious,  but 
Nature  does  not  always  make  us  aware  of  the  purposes 
which  she  exercises  through  us.  Now,  though  the 
corset  serves  to  draw  attention  to  certain  factors  of 
motherhood,  in  point  of  fact  it  is  injurious  to  that  end, 
and  is  on  that  highest  of  all  grounds  to  be  condemned. 
I  return  to  the  point  that  possibly  the  direct  and  formal 
condemnation  of  the  corset  may  be  in  some  cases  less 
effective  than  the  method,  which  must  have  some  value 
for  every  girl,  of  placing  before  her  eyes  representa- 
tions of  the  female  figure,  showing  beauty  and  capacity 
for  motherhood  as  completely  fused  because  they  are 
indeed  one.  Constrain  the  girl  to  admit  that  that  is 
as  beautiful  as  can  be,  and  then  ask  her  what  she  thinks 
the  corset  applied  to  such  a  figure  could  possibly  ac- 
complish. 

Surely  the  same  principle  applies  to  what  the  girl 
reads.  Some  of  us  become  more  and  more  convinced 
that  youth,  being  naturally  more  intelligent  than  ma- 
turity, prefers  and  requires  more  subtlety  in  its  teach- 
ing. In  addressing  a  meeting  of  men,  say  upon 
politics,  a  speaker's  first  business  is  to  be  crude.  He 
has  no  chance  whatever  unless  he  is  direct,  unqualified, 
allowing  nothing  at  all  for  any  kind  of  intelligence  or 
self-constructive  faculty  in  the  minds  of  his  hearers. 
Let  any  one  recall  the  catchwords,  styled  watchwords, 


1 88  Woman  and  Womanhood 

of  politics  during  the  last  ten  or  twenty  years,  and  he 
will  see  how  men  are  to  be  convinced. 

But  it  is  all  very  well  to  treat  men  as  fools,  pro- 
vided that  you  do  not  say  so — the  case  is  different  with 
young  people,  and  certainly  not  less  with  girls  than 
with  boys.  Mr.  Kipling,  in  one  of  those  earlier  mo- 
ments of  insight  that  sometimes  almost  persuade  us 
to  pardon  the  brutality  which  year  by  year  becomes 
more  than  ever  the  dominant  note  of  his  teaching, 
once  told  us  of  the  discomfiture  of  a  member  of  Par- 
liament, or  person  of  that  kind,  who  went  to  a  boys1 
school  to  lecture  about  Patriotism,  and  who  unfurled 
a  Union  Jack  amid  the  dead  silence  of  the  disgusted 
boys.  He  forgot  that,  for  once,  he  was  speaking  to 
an  intelligent  audience,  which  demands  something  a 
little  less  crude  than  the  kind  of  thing  which  wins 
elections  and  makes  and  unmakes  governments  and 
policies. 

There  is  certainly  a  lesson  here  for  those  who  are 
entrusted  with  the  supreme  responsibility,  so  immeas- 
urably more  political  than  politics,  of  forming  the 
girl's  mind  for  her  future  destiny.  Suggestion  is  one 
of  the  most  powerful  things  in  the  world,  but  we  must 
not  forget  that  inverted  form  of  it  which  has  been 
called  contra-suggestion.  We  all  know  how  the  first 
shoots  of  religion  are  destroyed  on  all  sides  in  young 
minds  by  contra-suggestion.  Crude,  ill-timed,  unsym- 
pathetic, excessive,  religious  teaching  and  religious  ex- 
ercises achieve,  as  scarcely  anything  else  could,  exactly 
the  opposite  of  that  which  they  seek  to  attain.  Thus 
it  is  not  here  proposed  that  we  should  take  any  course 


The  Maternal  Instinct  189 

at  home  or  at  school  which  should  have  the  result  of 
making  motherhood  as  nauseous  to  the  girl's  mind 
through  contra-suggestion,  as  it  easily  could  be  made 
if  we  did  not  set  to  work  upon  judicious  lines. 

If  we  are  in  any  measure  to  gain,  by  means  of  books, 
our  end  of  forming  right  ideals  in  the  girl's  mind,  I  am 
certain  that  we  must  not  expect  to  accomplish  much 
with  the  help  of  any  but  very  great  writers.  We 
may  very  well  doubt  the  substantial  value  for  the 
purpose  of  anything  written  for  the  purpose.  Such 
books  may  be  of  value  for  the  teacher;  they  may  pos- 
sibly be  of  value  in  disposing  of  curiosity  that  has  be- 
come overweening  or  even  morbid,  but  their  value  as 
preachments  I  much  question.  The  kind  of  writing 
upon  which  the  young  girl's  mind  will  be  nourished 
in  years  to  come  is  best  represented  by  the  lecture 
on  "  Queens'  Gardens "  in  Ruskin's  "  Sesame  and 
Lilies,"  though  in  that  magnificent  and  immortal  piece 
of  literature  there  is  nowhere  any  direct  allusion  to 
motherhood  as  the  natural  ideal  for  girlhood.  Yet  if 
only  one  girl  in  a  hundred  who  read  that  lecture  can 
be  persuaded,  in  the  beautiful  phrase  to  be  found  there, 
that  she  was  "  born  to  be  love  visible,"  how  excellent 
is  the  work  that  we  shall  have  accomplished!  A 
chapter  might  well  be  devoted  entirely  to  the  teaching 
of  Wordsworth  regarding  womanhood.  We  need 
scarcely  remind  ourselves  that  this  great  poet  owed 
an  immeasurable  debt  to  his  sister,  and  in  lesser, 
though  very  substantial,  degree  to  his  wife  and  daugh- 
ters. He  has  left  an  abundance  of  poetry  which  tes- 
tifies directly  and  indirectly  to  these  influences.  This 


Woman  and  Womanhood 

poetry  is  not  only  utterly  lovely  as  poetry;  at  once  sane 
and  passionate,  steadying  and  thrilling,  but  it  is  also 
not  to  be  surpassed,  I  cannot  but  believe,  as  a  means 
for  rightly  forming  the  ideals  of  girlhood.  Every 
year  sees  an  inundation  of  new  collections  of  poetry. 
The  anthologist  might  do  worse  than  collect  from 
Wordsworth  a  small,  but  precious  and  quintessential 
volume  under  some  such  title  as  "  Wordsworth  and 
Womanhood."  One  would  do  it  oneself  but  that  liter- 
ary people  of  a  certain  school  regard  it  as  an  imperti- 
nence that  any  one  who  believes  in  knowledge  should 
intrude  into  their  sphere.  Wordsworth,  it  is  true,  said 
that  "  poetry  is  the  breath  and  finer  spirit  of  all  knowl- 
edge; it  is  the  impassioned  expression  which  is  in  the 
countenance  of  all  Science. "  But  most  literary  people 
are  so  busy  writing  that  they  have  no  time  to  read,  and 
they  forget  these  sayings  of  the  immortal  dead.  Yet 
that  is  just  a  saying  which  directly  bears  upon  the  pres- 
ent contention.  We  must  be  very  careful  lest  we  in- 
sult and  outrage  girlhood  with  our  physiology,  not  that 
physiology  is  either  insolent  or  outrageous,  but  that 
girlhood  is  girlhood.  It  is  the  "  breath  and  finer 
spirit  "  of  our  knowledge  of  sex  and  parenthood  that 
we  must  seek  to  impart  to  her.  Poetry  is  its  vehicle, 
and  the  time  will  come  when  we  shall  consciously  use 
it  for  that  great  purpose. 

But  we  cannot  expect  the  adolescent  girl  to  be  con- 
tent even  with  Ruskin  and  Wordsworth.  She  must, 
of  course,  have  fiction,  and  under  this  heading  there 
is  more  or  less  accessible  to  her  every  possibility  in  the 
gamut  of  morality,  from  the  teaching  of  such  a  book 


The  Maternal  Instinct  IQI 

as  "  Richard  Feverel  "  down  to  the  excrement  and  sew- 
age that  defile  the  railway  book-stalls  to-day  under  the 
guise  of  "  bold,  reverent,  and  fearless  handling  of  the 
great  sex  problems."  The  present  writer  is  one  of 
those  old-fashioned  enough  to  believe  that  it  matters 
a  great  deal  what  young  people  read.  We  are  all 
hygienists  nowadays,  aod  very  particular  as  to  what 
enters  our  children's  mouths.  But  what  is  the  value  of 
these  precautions  if  we  relax  our  care  as  to  what  en- 
ters their  minds? 

It  is  my  misfortune  to  be  scarcely  acquainted  at  all 
with  fiction,  and  I  can  presume  to  offer  no  detailed 
guidance  in  this  matter.  The  name  of  Mr.  Eden 
Phillpotts  must  certainly  be  mentioned  as  foremost 
among  those  living  writers  who  care  for  these  things. 
In  the  Eugenics  Education  Society  it  was  at  one  time 
hoped  to  see  the  formation  of  a  branch  of  fiction  in 
the  library  which  might  form  the  nucleus  of  a  cata- 
logue, well  worth  disseminating  if  only  it  could  be  com- 
piled, of  fiction  worthy  the  consumption  of  girlhood. 
Perhaps  it  would  hardly  be  necessary  for  the  present 
writer  to  protest  that  the  didactic,  the  unnaturally 
good,  the  well-meaning,  the  entirely  amateur  types  of 
fiction,  including  those  which  ignore  the  facts  of  human 
nature,  and,  above  all,  those  which  decry  instead  of 
seeking  to  deify  the  natural,  would  find  no  place  in  this 
catalogue.  It  is  possible,  though  I  much  doubt  it,  that 
there  may  be  many  books  unknown  to  me  of  the  order 
and  quality  of  "  Richard  Feverel."  At  any  rate,  that 
represents  in  its  perfection — save,  perhaps,  for  the  un- 
necessary tragedy  of  its  close,  which  the  illustrious 


192  Woman  and  Womanhood 

author  himself  in  conversation  did  not  find  it  quite  pos- 
sible to  defend^-the  type  of  novel  whose  teaching  the 
Eugenist  and  the  Maternalist  must  recommend  for  the 
nourishment  of  youth  of  both  sexes. 

As  has  been  already  hinted,  discourses  on  how  to 
wash  a  baby  are  less  in  place  here;  and  in  the  following 
chapter  the  argument  will  be  set  forth  in  detail  that  the 
sequence  of  the  common  schemes  for  the  education  of 
girlhood  and  womanhood  is,  in  one  essential  respect, 
logically  and  practically  erroneous. 


XIII 

CHOOSING  THE  FATHERS  OF  THE  FUTURE 

WE  live  in  a  social  chaos  of  which  the  evolution  into 
anything  like  a  cosmos  is  sca/cely  more  than  incipient. 
In  such  a  case  the  reformer  has  to  do  the  best  he  may; 
in  the  only  possible  sense  in  which  that  phrase  can  be 
defended,  he  has  to  take  the  world  as  he  finds  it. 
Heartless  heads  will  of  course  be  found  to  comment 
upon  the  logical  error  of  his  ways,  to  which  his  only 
reply  is  that,  while  they  stand  and  comment,  what  can 
be  done  he  now  will  do. 

In  this  whole  matter  of  the  care  and  culture  of 
motherhood — which  is,  verily,  the  prime  condition, 
too  often  forgotten,  of  the  care  and  culture  of  child- 
hood— we  have  to  do  what  we  can,  when  and  as  we  can. 
We  live  in  a  society  where  mankind,  held  individually 
responsible  for  all  other  acts  whatsoever,  is  held  en- 
tirely irresponsible  for  the  act  of  parenthood  which,  be- 
ing more  momentous  than  any  other,  ought  to  be  held 
more  responsible  than  any  other.  Marriage,  the 
precedent  condition  of  most  parenthood,  is  thus  re- 
garded as  the  concern  of  the  individuals  and  the  pres- 
ent. Individuals  and  the  present  therefore  decide 
what  marriages  shall  occur;  but  by  some  obscure  fa- 
tality which  no  one  had  thought  of,  the  future  appears 
upon  the  scene:  and  when  it  is  actually  present,  or 
rather  not  only  present  but  visible,  the  responsibility 

193 


IQ4  Woman  and  Womanhood 

for  it  is  recognized.  We  have  not  yet  gone  so  far  as 
to  see  that  a  girl  may  be  a  good  mother,  in  the  highest 
sense,  in  her  choice  of  a  mate.  But  as  things  are,  it 
is  agreed  that  we  are  to  act  like  blind  automata,  as 
improvident  and  irresponsible  as  the  lower  fishes,  until 
the  actual  birth  of  the  future.  The  philosophic  truth 
that  the  future  is  nascent  in  the  present — a  truth  so 
genuinely  philosophic  that  it  is  also  practical — is  still 
hidden  from  us,  and  thus  we  are  faced,  in  town  and 
country  alike,  with  ignorant  motherhood,  set  to  the 
most  difficult,  responsible,  and  expert  of  tasks — the 
right  nurture  of  babyhood;  babyhood,  a  ridiculous  sub- 
ject for  grown  men,  yet  somehow  the  condition  of 
them  and  all  their  doings. 

In  this  state  of  affairs,  those  who  began  the  modern 
campaign  against  infant  mortality,  or  rather  that  small 
section  of  them  who  were  not  to  be  beguiled  by  second- 
aries, such  as  poverty,  alcoholism,  and  the  like,  set  to 
work  to  remedy  maternal  ignorance.  Having  been 
engaged  in  this  campaign  for  many  years,  one  is  not 
likely  to  decry  it  now,  nor  is  there  any  occasion  to  do 
so.  The  movement  for  the  instruction  of  motherhood 
and  for  the  instruction  even  of  girls  in  the  duties  of 
actual  motherhood,  is  now  not  only  started  but  making 
real  progress,  and  will  assuredly  prosper. 

But  here  our  business  is  to  think  a  little  in  front  of 
action  done  and  doing,  and  we  shall  very  soon  discover 
that  there  is  more  for  public  opinion  yet  to  learn,  while 
we  may  be  very  certain  that  this  last  lesson  will  be  less 
easily  learnt  than  the  former  was,  for  it  is  based  upon 
evidence  much  less  obvious.  I  have  long  maintained 


Choosing  the  Fathers  of  the  Future        195 

that  the  movement  against  infant  mortality  must  pre- 
cede in  logic  and  in  practice  movements  for  the  physi- 
cal training  of  boys  and  girls,  for  the  medical  inspec- 
tion and  treatment  of  school  children,  and  so  forth. 
Relatively  to  these  I  have  always  asserted  that  the 
right  care  of  babies  has  the  immense  superiority  that 
it  means  beginning  at  the  beginning,  but  I  have  always 
denied  that  it  means  beginning  at  the  absolute  begin- 
ning, if  such  a  phrase  be  permitted. 

Given  the  world  as  it  is,  the  conditions  of  marriage 
as  they  are,  the  economic  position  of  woman,  the  power 
of  prudery,  and  the  conventional  supposition  that 
babies  occur  by  providential  dispensation,  we  must  act 
as  if  we  really  made  the  assumption  that  human  parent- 
hood, until  the  moment  of  birth,  is  as  irresponsible  as 
any  sequence  of  events  in  the  atmosphere  or  the  world 
of  electrons.  But  we  who  are  thinking  in  front  for 
humanity  must  make  no  such  assumption.  We  must 
look  forward  to  and  hasten  the  time  when  we  can  act 
upon  the  true  assumption,  which  is  that  the  more  the 
knowledge  the  greater  the  responsibility,  and  more  es- 
pecially that  our  knowledge  of  heredity,  so  far  from 
abolishing  human  responsibility — as  the  enemies  of 
knowledge  declare — immeasurably  extends  and  deep- 
ens it.  In  the  present  volume  we  are  proceeding  upon 
the  true  assumption,  and  therefore  in  the  study  of 
womanhood  we  must  now  proceed,  in  defiance  of  con- 
ventional assumptions,  to  study  the  responsibility  and 
duties  of  motherhood  as  they  exist  for  maidenhood.  To 
this  end,  it  will  be  necessary  that  we  remind  ourselves 
of  certain  great  biological  facts  which  are  of  immense 


196  Woman  and  Womanhood 

significance  for  mankind,  and  are  doubtless  indeed 
more  important  in  their  bearing  upon  ourselves  than 
upon  any  other  living  species. 

The  first  of  these  is  the  fact  of  heredity;  the  second 
the  fact  that  hereditary  endowment,  whether  for  good 
or  for  evil,  or,  as  is  the  rule,  both  for  good  and  for 
evil,  goes  vastly  further  than  any  one  has  until  lately 
realized,  in  determining  individual  destiny.  These 
are  amongst  the  first  principles  of  Eugenics  or  race 
culture,  and  as  they  have  been  discussed  at  length  else- 
where, one  may  here  take  them  for  granted.  Scarcely 
less  important  is  the  fact  that  the  conditions  of  mating 
in  the  sub-human  world — conditions  which  beyond  dis- 
pute make  for  the  continuance,  the  vigour,  the  effi- 
ciency, and  therefore  the  happiness  of  the  species — 
are  largely  modified  amongst  ourselves  in  consequence 
of  certain  human  facts  which  have  no  sub-human  par- 
allel. The  parallels  and  the  divergences  between  the 
two  cases  are  both  alike  of  the  utmost  significance,  and 
cannot  be  too  carefully  studied.  It  will  here  be  pos- 
sible, of  course,  merely  to  look  at  them  as  briefly  as  is 
compatible  with  the  making  of  a  right  approach  to  the 
subject  now  before  us,  which  is  the  girl's  choice  of  a 
husband. 

But  in  right  priority  to  the  question  of  choice,  we 
may  for  convenience  discuss  first  the  marriage  age. 
The  choice  at  one  age  may  not  be  the  choice  at  an- 
other, and  in  any  case  the  question  of  the  marriage 
age  is  so  important  for  the  individual  woman,  and  so 
immensely  effective  in  determining  the  composition  of 
any  society,  that  we  cannot  study  it  too  carefully. 


XIV 

THE  MARRIAGE  AGE  FOR  GIRLS 

LET  us  clearly  understand,  in  the  first  place,  that  in 
this  chapter  we  discuss  principles  and  averages,  and 
that,  supposing  our  conclusions  be  accepted  as  true, 
they  cannot  for  a  moment  be  quoted  as  decisive  in  their 
bearing  upon  special  cases.  The  impartial  reader  will 
not  suppose  that  such  folly  is  contemplated,  but  those 
who  discuss  and  advocate  new  views  very  soon  learn 
that  many  readers  are  not  impartial,  and  that  for  one 
cause  or  another  they  do  not  fail  of  misrepresentation. 
This  is  not  a  case,  then,  of  "  science  laying  down  the 
law,"  and  ordering  this  individual  to  marry  at  this  age, 
and  that  not  to  marry  at  another;  and  yet  though  this 
rigorous  individual  application  of  our  principles  is  ab- 
surd, they  are  none  the  less  worth  formulating,  if  it 
be  possible. 

The  question  before  us  is  very  far  from  simple:  it 
is  not  in  the  nature  of  human  problems  to  be  simple, 
the  individual  and  society  being  so  immeasurably  com- 
plex. We  have  to  consider  far  more  points  than  oc- 
cur on  first  inspection.  We  have  to  ascertain  when 
the  average  woman  becomes  fit  for  marriage.  But 
we  must  remember  that  we  are  dealing  with  marriage 
under  the  conditions  imposed  by  law  and  public  opin- 

197 


198  Woman  and  Womanhood 

ion.  Therefore,  fit  for  mating  and  fit  for  marriage 
are  not  synonymous,  and  to  ascertain  the  age  of  phys- 
iological fitness  for  mating,  though  an  important  con- 
tribution to  our  problem,  is  not  the  solution  of  it.  We 
have  further  to  consider  how  the  taste  and  inclination 
of  the  individual  vary  in  the  course  of  her  develop- 
ment. We  have  to  ask  ourselves  at  what  age  in  gen- 
eral she  is  likely  to  make  that  choice  which  her  matu- 
rity and  middle  age  will  ratify  rather  than  for  ever 
regret.  We  have  to  consider  the  relations  of  different 
ages  to  motherhood,  both  as  regards  the  quality  of  the 
children  born,  and  as  regards  their  probable  number 
under  natural  conditions.  These  are  questions  which 
certainly  affect  the  individual's  happiness  profoundly, 
and  yet  that  is  the  least  of  their  significance.  Again, 
we  have  to  observe  how  the  constitution  of  society  va- 
ries as  regards  the  age  of  its  members,  according  as 
marriage  be  early  or  late.  In  the  former  case  more 
generations  are  alive  at  the  same  time,  and  in  the  latter 
case  fewer.  The  increasing  age  at  marriage  would 
have  more  conspicuous  results  in  this  respect  if  it  were 
not  for  the  great  increase  in  longevity;  so  that,  though 
the  generations  are  becoming  more  spread  out,  we  may 
have  as  many  representatives  of  different  generations 
alive  at  the  same  time  as  there  used  to  be;  but  of  course 
there  is  the  great  difference  that  society  is  older  as  a 
whole.  This  is  a  fact  which  in  itself  must  affect  the 
doings  and  the  prospects  of  civilization.  An  assem- 
blage of  people  in  the  twenties  will  not  behave  in  the 
same  way  as  those  in  the  forties.  The  probable  effect 
must  be  towards  conservatism,  and  increasing  rigidity. 


The  Marriage  Age  for  Girls  199 

It  is  a  question  to  be  asked  by  the  historian  of  civiliza- 
tion how  far  these  considerations  bear  upon  the  his- 
tory of  past  empires. 

Another  and  most  notable  result  of  the  modified  re- 
lation between  the  generations  which  ensues  from  in- 
creasing the  age  at  marriage,  is  that  the  parents,  under 
the  newer  conditions,  must  necessarily  be,  on  the  aver- 
age, psychologically  further  from  their  children.  The 
man  who  first  becomes  a  father  at  twenty-five,  shall  we 
say,  may  well  expect  still  to  have  something  of  the  boy 
in  him  at  thirty,  especially  as  children  keep  us  young. 
He  is  thus  a  companion  for  his  child  and  his  child  for 
him.  The  same  is  true  of  women.  It  is  good  that  a 
woman  who  still  has  something  of  girlhood  in  her 
should  become  a  mother.  When  the  marriage  age  is 
much  delayed,  people  of  both  sexes  tend  to  grow  old 
more  quickly  than  if  they  had  children  to  keep  them 
young,  and  then  when  the  children  come  the  psycho- 
logical disparity  is  greater  than  it  ought  to  be — greater 
than  is  best  either  for  parents  or  children. 

Before  we  consider  the  question  of  individual  de- 
velopment, let  us  note  the  general  trend  of  the  mar- 
riage age.  There  is  no  doubt  that  this  is  progres- 
sively towards  a  delay  in  marriage.  We  have  only  to 
study  the  facts  amongst  primitive  races,  and  in  low 
forms  of  civilization,  to  see  that  increase  in  civiliza- 
tion involves,  amongst  other  things,  increasing  age  at 
marriage.  In  his  book,  "  The  Nature  of  Man,"  Pro- 
fessor Metchnikoff  quotes  some  statistics,  now  very 
nearly  fifty  years  old,  showing  the  age  at  first  marriage 
in  various  European  countries.  The  figure  for  Eng- 


2OO  Woman  and  Womanhood 

land  was  nearly  26  for  males  and  24.6  for  females; 
in  France,  Norway,  Holland,  and  Belgium  the  figures 
for  both  sexes  were  considerably  higher,  the  average 
age  in  Belgium  being  very  nearly  30  for  men  and  more 
than  28  for  women.  In  England  the  age  has  been 
rising  for  many  years  past,  and  probably  stands  now 
at  about  28  for  men  and  26  for  women.  It  need 
hardly  be  pointed  out  that  this  increase  in  the  age  of 
marriage  is  one  of  the  factors  in  the  fall  of  the  birth- 
rate, which  is  general  throughout  the  leading  countries 
of  the  world,  proceeding  now  with  great  rapidity  even 
in  Germany. 

On  the  whole,  it  is  further  true  that  the  marriage 
age  rises  as  we  ascend  from  lower  to  higher  classes 
within  a  given  civilization,  though  a  very  select  class 
among  the  wealthy  offer  an  exception  to  this. 

Now  nothing  is  more  familiar  to  us  all  than  that 
there  is  a  disharmony,  as  Professor  Metchnikoff  puts 
it,  between  these  ages  for  marriage  and  the  age  at 
which  the  development  of  the  racial  instinct  is  unmis- 
takable and  parenthood  is  indeed  possible.  The  tend- 
ency of  civilization  is  to  increase  this  disharmony,  and 
it  is  impossible  to  believe  that  this  tendency  car  be 
healthy  either  for  the  civilization  or  for  the  individual. 

Still  concerning  ourselves  with  the  more  general 
aspects  of  the  question,  let  it  be  observed  that,  as  re- 
gards men,  this  unnatural  delay  of  marriage  very  fre- 
quently brings  consequences  which,  bearing  hardly  on 
themselves,  later  bear  not  less  hardly  on  hapless 
womanhood.  The  later  the  age  to  which  marriage  is 
delayed,  the  more  are  men  handicapped  in  their  con- 


The  Marriage  Age  for  Girls  2OI 

stant  struggle  to  control  the  racial  instinct  under  the 
unnatural  conditions  in  which  they  find  themselves. 
The  great  majority  of  men  fail  in  this  unequal  fight, 
and  of  those  who  fail  an  enormous  number  become  in- 
fected by  disease,  with  which,  when  they  marry,  they 
infect  their  wives,  sometimes  killing  them,  often  caus- 
ing them  lifelong  illness,  often  destroying  for  ever 
their  chances  of  motherhood,  or  making  motherhood 
a  horror  by  the  production  of  children  that  are  an  of- 
fence against  the  sun.  These  are  facts  known  to  all 
who  have  looked  into  the  matter,  but  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  decent  public  opinion  on  the  subject,  and  the 
author  or  speaker  who  dares  to  allude  to  them  takes 
his  means  of  living,  if  not  his  life,  into  his  hands. 

No  doubt  men  are  largely  responsible  themselves 
for  the  rising  marriage  age,  but  women  are  also  re- 
sponsible in  some  measure.  This  must  mean  on  the 
whole  an  injury  to  themselves  as  individuals,  to  their 
sex,  and  to  society.  Both  sexes  demand  a  higher 
standard  of  living;  the  man  spends  enough  in  alcohol 
and  tobacco,  as  a  rule,  to  support  one  or  two  children, 
and  then  says  he  is  too  poor  to  marry.  There  is 
everything  to  be  said  for  the  doctrine  that  people 
should  be  provident,  and  should  bring  no  more  chil- 
dren into  the  world  than  they  are  able  to  support;  but 
before  we  accept  this  plea  in  any  particular  case,  we 
should  first  inquire  how  the  available  income  is  be- 
ing spent.  At  present,  every  indication  goes  to  show 
that  we  are  following  in  the  track  of  all  our  prede- 
cessors, spending  upon  individual  indulgence  that 
which  ought  to  be  dedicated  to  the  future,  and  thereby 


2O2  Woman  and  Womanhood 

compromising  the  worth  or  the  possibility  of  any  fu- 
ture at  all. 

In  the  light  of  these  considerations  and  many  more, 
some  of  which  we  shall  later  consider,  I  deplore  and 
protest  against  with  all  my  heart,  as  blind,  ignorant, 
and  destructive,  the  counsel  of  those  women,  some  of 
them  conspicuous  advocates  of  the  cause  of  woman's 
suffrage — in  which  I  nevertheless  believe — who  advise 
women  to  delay  in  marriage,  or  who  publish  opinions 
throwing  contempt  upon  marriage  altogether.  Later, 
we  must  deal  in  detail  with  marriage;  here  we  are  only 
concerned  with  the  marriage  age.  It  will  then  be  ar- 
gued that  the  conditions  of  marriage  must  sooner  or 
later  be  modified  in  so  far  as  they  are  at  present  in- 
acceptable  to  a  certain  number  of  women  of  the  high- 
est type.  This  may  be  granted  without  in  any  degree 
accepting  the  deplorable  teaching  of  such  writers  as 
Miss  Cicely  Hamilton,  in  her  book  entitled  "  Marriage 
as  a  Trade."  Every  individual  case  requires  indi- 
vidual consideration,  and  no  less  than  any  individual 
case  ever  yet  received.  But  in  general  those  women 
who  counsel  the  delay  of  the  marriage  age  are  oppos- 
ing the  facts  of  feminine  development  and  psychology. 
They  are  indirectly  encouraging  male  immorality  and 
female  prostitution,  with  their  appalling  consequences 
for  those  directly  concerned,  for  hosts  of  absolutely 
innocent  women,  and  for  the  unborn.  Further,  those 
who  suppose  that  the  granting  of  the  vote  is  going  to 
effect  radical  and  fundamental  changes  in  the  facts  of 
biology,  the  development  of  instinct,  and  its  signifi- 
cance in  human  action,  are  fools  of  the  very  blindest 


The  Marriage  Age  for  Girls  203 

kind.  Some  of  us  find  that  it  needs  constant  self-chas- 
tening and  bracing  up  of  the  judgment  to  retain  our 
belief  in  the  cause  of  woman's  suffrage,  of  the  justice 
and  desirability  of  which  we  are  convinced,  assaulted 
as  we  almost  daily  are  by  the  unnatural,  unfeminine, 
almost  inhuman  blindness  of  many  of  its  advocates. 

We  have  constantly  to  remind  ourselves  that  our 
immediate  concern  and  duty  are  not  with  the  world 
as  it  might  be,  or  ought  to  be,  or  will  be,  but  with  the 
world  as  it  is.  There  are  many  good  arguments,  ad- 
mirably adapted  to  an  imaginary  world,  why  the  mar- 
riage age  should  be  increased.  But  these  forget  the 
possible,  nay  the  inevitable,  consequences,  if  such  an 
increase  show  itself  in  one  nation  and  not  in  another, 
in  one  class  of  society  and  not  in  another.  It  is  a  good 
thing,  and  it  is  the  ideal  of  the  eugenist,  as  I  ventured 
to  formulate  some  years  ago,  that  every  child  who 
comes  into  the  world  should  be  desired,  designed,  and 
loved  in  anticipation.  But  if  in  France,  shall  we  say, 
such  a  tendency  begins  to  obtain  a  generation  earlier 
than  it  does  in  Germany,  there  will  come  to  be  a  dis- 
parity of  population  which,  continuing,  must  inevitably 
mean  sooner  or  later  the  disappearance  of  France. 

Or  again,  difference  in  the  marriage  age  in  different 
classes  within  a  given  community  has  very  notable  con- 
sequences, as  Sir  Francis  Galton  showed  in  his  book, 
"  Hereditary  Genius,"  and  later,  in  more  detail,  in  his 
11  Inquiries  into  Human  Faculty."  He  shows  that, 
other  things  being  equal,  the  earlier  marrying  class  or 
group  will  in  a  few  generations  breed  down  the  others 
and  completely  supplant  them.  If  the  natural  quality 


204  Woman  and  Womanhood 

of  the  one  class  differ  from  that  of  the  other,  the  ulti- 
mate consequences  will  be  tremendous.  It  has  been 
proved  up  to  the  hilt  that  in  Great  Britain  these  differ- 
ences in  marriage  in  different  classes  exist,  and  that, 
on  the  whole,  the  marriage  age  varies  directly  as  the 
means  of  support  for  the  children,  to  say  nothing  of 
natural  and  transmissible  differences  in  different 
classes.  One  can  only,  therefore,  repeat  what  was  said 
some  time  ago  in  contribution  to  a  public  discussion  on 
this  subject  that,  "  considering  the  present  distribution 
of  the  birth-rate,  nothing  strikes  a  more  direct  blow 
at  the  future  of  England  than  that  which  tends  to  in- 
crease the  marriage  age  of  the  responsible,  careful, 
and  provident  amongst  us  whilst  the  improvident  and 
careless  multiply  as  they  do." 

Let  us  now  consider  another  possible  factor  in  this 
question,  and  then  we  must  proceed  to  look  at  the  in- 
dividual woman  as  the  question  of  the  marriage  age 
affects  her. 

The  Marriage  Age  and  the  Quality  of  the  Children. 
— Both  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  race  and  from 
that  of  the  individual  who  desires  happy  parenthood 
it  is  necessary  to  learn,  if  possible,  how  the  age  of  the 
parents  affects  the  quality  of  their  offspring.  If 
motherhood  is  to  be  a  joy  and  a  blessing,  the  children 
must  be  such  as  bring  joy  and  blessing.  My  provis- 
ional judgment  on  this  matter  is  that  we  are  at  present 
without  anything  like  conclusive  evidence  proving  that 
the  age  of  the  parents  affects  the  quality  of  their  chil- 
dren. 

Let  us  look  at  some  of  the  arguments  which  have 


The  Marriage  Age  for  Girls  205 

been  advanced.  The  school  of  biometricians,  repre- 
sented most  conspicuously  in  latter  years  by  Professor 
Karl  Pearson,  have  desired  us  to  accept  certain  con- 
clusions which  are  singularly  incompatible  with  the 
opinion  of  their  illustrious  founder,  Sir  Francis  Galton, 
in  favour  of  early  marriages  among  those  of  sound 
stock.  By  their  special  procedure,  as  rigorously  criti- 
cal in  the  statistical  treatment  of  data  as  it  is  sweetly 
simple  in  its  innocent  assumption  that  all  data  are  of 
equal  value,  they  have  proposed  to  show  that  the  elder 
members  of  a  family  are  further  removed  from  the 
normal,  average,  or  mean  type  than  the  younger  mem- 
bers. This,  according  to  them,  may  sometimes  work 
out  in  the  production  of  great  ability  or  genius  in  the 
eldest  or  elder  members,  but  oftener  still  shows  itself 
in  highly  undesirable  characters,  whether  of  mind  or 
of  body,  the  latter  often  leading  to  premature  decease. 
There  is  hence  inferred  a  powerful  argument  against 
the  limitation  of  families,  which  means  a  dispropor- 
tionate increase  amongst  the  aberrant  members  of  the 
population. 

This  argument  really  offers  as  good  an  example  as 
can  be  desired  of  the  almost  unimaginable  ease  with 
which  these  skilful  mathematicians  allow  themselves 
to  be  confused.  Their  inquiry  has  ignored  the  age 
of  the  parents  at  marriage — or,  better  still,  at  the 
births  of  their  respective  children — and  has  assumed 
that  the  number  of  the  family  was  the  all-important 
point:  a  good  example  of  that  idolatry  of  number  as 
number  which  is  the  "  freak  religion  "  of  the  bio- 
metrician.  Supposing  that  the  conclusion  reached  by 


206  Woman  and  Womanhood 

this  method  be  a  true  one — which  it  would  need  more 
credulity  than  I  possess  to  assert — we  must  conclude 
that,  somehow,  primogeniture,  as  such,  affects  the 
quality  of  the  offspring,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  that 
to  be  born  fifth  or  tenth  or  fifteenth  involves  certain 
personal  consequences  of  a  special  kind.  Evidently 
we  here  approach  less  sophisticated  forms  of  number- 
worship,  as  that  which  attached  a  superstitious  mean- 
ing to  the  seventh  son  of  a  seventh  son. 

It  seems,  therefore,  necessary  to  point  out — surpris- 
ing though  the  necessity  be — that,  if  the  biometrical 
conclusion  be  valid,  what  it  demonstrates  must  surely 
be  not  the  occult  working  of  certain  changes  in  the 
germ-plasm,  for  instance,  of  a  father,  because  a  cer- 
tain number  of  his  germ-cells,  after  separation  from 
his  body,  have  gone  to  form  new  individuals  (changes 
which  would  not  have  occurred  if  those  germ-cells  had 
perished!),  but  rather  a  correlation  between  the  age 
of  the  parents  and  the  quality  of  their  offspring.  How 
cleverly  the  biometricians  have  involved  one  muddle 
within  another  will  be  evident  not  only  from  consider- 
ing the  evident  absurdity  of  supposing — as  their  argu- 
ment, analyzed,  necessarily  supposes — that  a  man's 
body  can  be  affected  by  the  diverse  fates  of  germ-cells 
that  have  left  it,  but  also  when  we  observe  that  one 
of  the  commonest  and  most  obvious  causes  of  the  re- 
duction in  the  size  of  families  is  the  increasing  age  at 
marriage  of  both  sexes.  Two  persons  may  thus  marry 
and  become  parents  at  the  age  of  say  thirty,  their  child 
ranking  as  first-born,  of  course,  in  the  biometricians5 
tables;  but  had  they  married  ten  years  sooner,  a  child 


The  Marriage  Age  for  Girls  207 

born  when  the  parents  were  thirty  might  rank  as  the 
tenth  child,  and  would  be  so  reckoned  by  the  biometn- 
cians.  One  does  not  need  to  be  a  biologist  to  perceive 
that  conclusions  based^upon  assumptions  so  uncritical 
are  worth  nothing  at  all,  and  it  is  tempting  to  suggest 
that  the  biometricians  are  so  called,  on  a  principle  long- 
famous,  because  they  measure  everything  but  life. 

It  is  plainly  unnecessary,  therefore,  for  us  to  trouble 
about  collecting  the  innumerable  instances  where  chil- 
dren late  in  the  family  sequence  have  turned  out  to  be 
illustrious,  or  have  proved  to  be  idiots.  It  is  unneces- 
sary because  the  most  obvious  criticism  of  the  conten- 
tion before  us  disposes  of  the  proof  upon  which  it  is 
sought  to  be  based.  Nevertheless,  of  course,  though 
the  particular  contention  about  the  size  of  the  family 
must  necessarily  be  meaningless,  unless,  as  is  so  very 
improbable,  it  should  be  shown  some  day  that  the  bear- 
ing of  children  affects  the  maternal  organism  in  some 
way  so  as  to  cause  subsequent  children  to  approximate 
ever  nearer  to  the  type  of  the  race ;  yet  it  is  quite  con- 
ceivable, though  quite  unproved,  that  the  age  of  the 
parents  involves  changes  in  the  body  which  affect,  for 
good  or  for  evil,  either  the  construction  or  the  general 
vigour  of  the  germ-cells.  As  to  this  nothing  is  known, 
but  a  great  weight  of  evidence  suggests  that  little  im- 
portance, if  any,  can  be  attached  to  this  question. 
Women  marrying  at  forty  or  more  may  give  birth  to 
splendid  specimens  of  humanity  or  to  indifferent  ones, 
and  the  same  may  be  said  of  the  girl  of  seventeen, 
though  as  to  this  more  must  be  said.  Similarly,  also, 
it  is  impossible  to  make  any  general  contrasts  between 


208  Woman  and  Womanhood 

the  offspring  of  fathers  of  eighteen  or  fathers  of 
eighty.  Correlations  may  exist,  but  we  know  nothing 
of  them  yet. 

Our  conclusion  then  is  that,  with  regard  to  the 
quality  of  the  children  of  any  given  mother,  we  can- 
not say  that  she  should  marry  at  any  particular  age, 
within  limits,  rather  than  another.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  is  evident  that  if  she  be  highly  worthy  of 
motherhood  we  shall  desire  her  to  have  a  large  family, 
and  therefore  must  encourage  her  early  marriage,  as 
the  late  Sir  Francis  Galton  so  long  maintained. 

Physical  Fitness  for  Marriage. — We  must  carefully 
distinguish  between  the  question  we  have  just  been  dis- 
cussing and  that  of  the  marriage  age  from  the 
mother's  point  of  view.  We  shall  find  that  the  best 
age  for  marriage,  so  far  as  this  question  is  concerned, 
is  neither  puberty,  on  the  one  hand,  nor  the  average 
marriage  age  amongst  civilized  women,  on  the  other 
hand. 

If  things  were  as  we  should  like  them  to  be,  there 
would  be  a  harmony  between  the  occurrence  of  pu- 
berty and  fitness  for  marriage.  But  there  can  be  no 
question  that  the  goal  of  evolution,  which  is  perfect 
adaptation,  has  not  yet  been  attained  by  mankind,  and 
indeed  reason  can  be  given  to  show  that  the  goal  re- 
cedes as  we  advance  towards  it.  The  practice  of 
lower  races,  amongst  whom  the  girls  often  marry  at 
puberty  or  before  it,  is  much  less  injurious  to  the  in- 
dividual and  the  race  than  we  might  suppose;  but  the 
harmony  between  the  maternal  body  and  the  maternal 
function  is  much  less  imperfect  in  lower  races  of  man- 


The  Marriage  Age  for  Girls  209 

kind  than  it  is  among  ourselves.  Just  as  we  find  that, 
among  the  lower  animals,  the  phenomena  of  mother- 
hood are  simple,  easy,  and  almost  painless,  so  we  find 
that,  though  owing  to  the  erect  attitude,  as  much  can- 
riot  be  said  for  human  beings  anywhere,  yet  these  phe- 
nomena are  far  less  severe  among  the  lower  races  of 
mankind  than  among  ourselves.  The  reason  is  to  be 
found  in  the  astonishing  progressive  increase  in  the 
size  of  the  human  head  in  the  higher  races.  The  large 
size  of  the  head  in  adult  life  is  foreshadowed  in  its 
size  at  birth,  and  this  it  is  which  constitutes  the  crux 
of  motherhood  among  the  higher  races.  It  is  un- 
doubtedly true  that  the  maternal  body,  by  a  process  of 
natural  selection,  has  been  evolved  in  the  direction  of 
better  correspondence  with,  and  capacity  for,  that  en- 
larged head  of  which  civilization  is  the  product.  But 
at  the  present  stage  in  evolution  the  great  function 
of  giving  birth  to  a  human  being  of  high  race — more 
especially  to  a  boy  of  such  a  race — is  graver,  more  pro- 
longed, and  more  hazardous  than  the  maternal  func- 
tion has  ever  been  before.  The  gravity  of  the  pro- 
cess has  increased  proportionately  with  the  worth  of 
the  product. 

There  are  yet  further  consequences  of  the  develop- 
ment which  will  convince  us  how  important  it  is  that  we 
should  come  to  right  conclusions  regarding  the  physi- 
cal fitness  of  girls  for  marriage.  Even  to-day,  when 
the  work  of  Lord  Lister  has  been  done,  and  when  ma- 
ternity hospitals — far  more  dangerous  than  a  battle- 
field less  than  two  generations  ago — can  show  records 
from  year  to  year  without  the  loss  of  a  single  mother, 


2IO  Woman  and  Womanhood 

the  fact  remains  that  several  thousands  of  women  in 
Great  Britain  alone  lose  their  lives  every  year  in  the 
discharge  of  their  supreme  duty.  It  is  also  the  case 
that  large  numbers  of  infants  lose  their  lives  during, 
or  shortly  after,  birth,  owing  to  causes  inherent  in  the 
conditions  of  birth,  and  practically  beyond  any  but  the 
most  expert  control.  In  many  cases  no  skill  will  save 
the  child.  A  considerable  preponderance  of  the  vic- 
tims are  of  the  male  sex,  so  that  there  is  thus  early 
begun  that  process  of  higher  male  mortality,  which  is 
the  chief  cause  of  the  female  preponderance  that  is  so 
injurious  to  womanhood  and  to  society.  There  are 
thus  many  and  weighty  reasons,  individual  and  social 
— reasons  in  the  present  generation  and  in  the  next — 
which  conduce  to  the  importance  of  discovering  the 
best  age  for  marriage  from  the  physical  point  of  view. 
We  may  probably  accept  the  long-standing  figures 
of  Dr.  Matthews  Duncan,  one  of  Edinburgh's  many 
famous  obstetricians,  who  found  that  the  mortality 
rate  in  childbirth,  or  as  a  consequence  of  it,  was  low- 
est among  women  from  twenty  to  twenty-four  years  of 
age.  Therefore  it  may  safely  be  said  that,  on  the 
average,  and  looking  at  the  question,  for  the  present, 
solely  from  this  point  of  view,  a  girl  of  twenty-one  to 
twenty-two  is  by  no  means  too  young  to  marry.  Of 
course  it  would  be  monstrously  absurd  to  take  such  a 
statement  as  this  and  regard  it  as  conclusive,  even  had 
it  been  communicated  from  on  high,  for  any  particular 
case ;  but  as  an  average  statement  it  may  be  confidently 
put  forward.  At  this  age,  the  all-important  bones  of 
the  pelvis  have  reached  all  the  development  of  which 


The  Marriage  Age  for  Girls  211 

they  are  capable.  This  may  be  accepted,  notwith- 
standing the  fact  that,  especially  in  men,  the  growth  of 
the  long  bones  of  the  limbs  continues  to  a  considerably 
later  age.  Women  reach  maturity  sooner  than  men, 
and  the  pelvis  reaches  its  full  capacity  at  the  age 
stated.  Obstetricians  know  further  that  if  mother- 
hood be  begun  at  a  considerably  later  date,  there  is 
less  local  adaptability  than  when  the  bones  and  liga- 
ments are  younger.  The  point  lies  in  the  date  of  the 
beginning  of  motherhood,  for  this  is  in  general  a  con- 
spicuous instance  of  the  adage  that  the  first  step  is 
the  most  costly.* 

Psychical  Fitness  for  Marriage. — At  the  beginning 

*  It  is  well  to  quote  here  the  most  recent  comment  of  the  late  Sir  Francii  Galton 
upon  this  subject.  It  is  to  be  found  in  his  celebrated  Huxley  lecture,  now  published  by 
the  Eugenics  Education  Society,  together  with  much  of  the  illustrious  author's  other 
work,  under  the  title,  " Essays  in  Eugenics."  The  passage  relevant  to  our  discussion 
runs  as  follows  : — 

"  There  appears  to  be  a  considerable  difference  between  the  earliest  age  at  which  it 
is  physiologically  desirable  that  a  woman  should  marry  and  that  at  which  the  ablest,  or 
at  least  the  most  cultured,  women  usually  do.  Acceleration  in  the  time  of  marriage, 
often  amounting  to  seven  years,  as  from  twenty-eight  or  twenty-nine  to  twenty-one  or 
twenty-two,  under  influences  such  as  those  mentioned  above,  is  by  no  means  im- 
probable. What  would  be  its  effect  on  productivity  ?  It  might  be  expected  to  act  in 
two  ways : — 

"  (i)  By  shortening  each  generation  by  an  amount  equally  proportionate  to  the 
diminution  in  age  at  which  marriage  occurs.  Suppose  the  span  of  each  generation  to 
be  shortened  by  one-sixth,  so  that  six  take  the  place  of  five,  and  that  the  productivity 
of  each  ma.riage  is  unaltered,  it  follows  that  one-sixth  more  children  will  be  brought 
into  the  world  during  the  same  time,  which  is  roughly  equivalent  to  increasing  the 
productivity  of  an  unshortened  generation  by  that  amount. 

"  (a)  By  saving  from  certain  barrenness  the  earlier  part  of  the  child-bearing  period 
of  the  woman.  Authorities  differ  so  much  as  to  the  direct  gain  of  fertility  due  to 
early  marriage  that  it  is  dangerous  to  express  an  opinion.  The  large  and  thriving 
families  that  I  have  known  were  the  offspring  of  mothers  who  married  very  young." 


212  Woman  and  Womanhood 

of  this  chapter  it  was  insisted  that  we  must  carefully 
distinguish  between  physical  or  physiological  fitness 
for  mating  and  complete  fitness  for  marriage — which, 
though  it  includes  mating,  is  vastly  more.  Few  will 
question  the  proposition  that  physical  fitness  for  mar- 
riage is  reached  only  some  years  after  puberty;  so 
complete  psychical  fitness  for  marriage  may  well  be 
later  still.  We  should  thus  have  a  second  disharmony 
superposed  upon  the  first.  But,  instead,  when  we  look 
round  us,  we  may  often  be  inclined  to  ask  whether, 
for  many  girls  and  women,  the  age  of  psychical  fitness 
for  marriage  is  ever  reached  at  all;  and  we  have  to 
ask  ourselves  how  far  this  delay  or  indefinite  postpone- 
ment of  such  fitness  is  due  to  natural  conditions,  or 
how  far  it  is  due  to  the  fact  that  we  bring  up  our  girls 
to  be,  for  instance,  sideboard  ornaments,  as  Ruskin 
said  a  generation  ago. 

I  believe  that  this  disparity  between  the  age  of  physi- 
cal fitness  for  marriage  and  the  attainment  of  that 
outlook  upon  life  and  its  duties,  without  which  mar- 
riage must  be  so  perilous,  is  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant practical  problems  of  our  time,  and  that  its  solu- 
tion is  to  be  found  in  the  principle  of  education  for 
parenthood,  which  we  have  already  considered  at  such 
length.  It  is  a  most  serious  matter  that  marriage 
should  be  delayed  as  it  is  beyond  the  best  age  for  the 
commencement  of  motherhood;  it  is  injurious  to  the 
individual  and  her  motherhood,  and  whether  delay  oc- 
curs, as  it  does,  disproportionately  in  different  cases, 
or  disproportionately  within  a  nation,  in  the  different 
classes  of  which  it  is  composed,  the  consequences,  as 


The  Marriage  Age  for  Girls  213 

we  have  seen,  are  of  the  most  stupendous  possible 
kind. 

Yet  observe  what  a  difficulty  we  are  faced  with. 
Perceiving  the  injurious  consequences  of  delay  in  mar- 
riage— consequences  *which,  as  we  have  seen,  if  con- 
sidered only  as  they  show  themselves  in  the  most  hor- 
rible department  of  pathology,  would  be  sufficient  to 
demand  the  most  urgent  consideration — we  may  al- 
most feel  inclined  to  agree  with  the  utterly  blind  and 
deplorable  doctrine  too  common  amongst  parents  and 
schoolmistresses,  who  should  know  so  much  better, 
that  it  is  good  to  see  the  young  things  falling  in  love, 
and  that  the  sooner  they  are  married  the  better. 
Every  one  whose  eyes  are  open  knows  how  often  the 
consequences  of  such  teaching  and  practice  are  disas- 
trous; and  if  there  is  anything  which  we  should  dis- 
courage in  our  present  study,  it  is  that  marriage  in 
haste  and  repentance  at  leisure  to  which  these  blind 
guides  so  often  lead  their  blind  victims. 

Very  different,  however,  will  the  case  be  when  the 
victims  are  no  longer  blind.  The  condemnation  of 
their  blind  guides  at  the  present  time  is  not  that  they 
regard  it  as  right  and  healthy  that  young  people  should 
mate  in  their  early  twenties,  but  it  is  that  by  every 
means  in  their  power,  positive  and  negative,  these 
blind  guides  have  striven  to  prevent  the  light  from 
reaching  their  victim's  eyes.  The  day  is  coming,  how- 
ever, when  the  principles  of  education  for  parenthood 
— for  which,  if  for  anything,  this  book  is  a  plea — will 
be  accepted  and  practised,  and  then  the  case  will  be 
very  different. 


214  Woman  and  Womanhood 

Convinced  though  I  certainly  am  of  the  vast  im- 
portance of  nature  or  heredity  in  the  human  constitu- 
tion, I  am  not  one  of  those  eugenists  who,  to  the  grave 
injury  of  their  cause,  declare  that  there  are  no  such 
things  as  nurture  and  education,  in  that  they  effect 
nothing;  nor  do  I  believe  it  in  any  way  inherently 
necessary  that  perhaps  ten  years  after  puberty  a  girl 
should  still  be  irresponsible  in  those  matters  which,  in- 
comparably beyond  all  others,  demand  responsibility; 
or  incapable,  with  wise  help  or  even  without  it,  of  guid- 
ing her  course  aright.  It  is  we,  as  I  repeat  for  the 
thousandth  time,  who  are  to  blame,  for  our  deliberate, 
systematic,  and  disastrous  folly  in  scrupulously  exclud- 
ing from  her  education  that  for  which  the  whole  of 
education,  of  any  other  kind,  should  be  regarded  as 
the  preparation. 

No  one  can  attach  more  than  its  due  importance  to 
woman's  function  of  choosing  the  fathers  of  the  fu- 
ture; rejecting  the  unworthy  and  selecting  the  worthy 
for  this  greatest  of  human  duties.  It  would  be  a  most 
serious  difficulty  for  those  who  hold  such  a  creed  if 
it  were  that  a  girl's  taste  and  judgment  could  be 
trusted,  if  at  all,  only  some  years  after  she  had  reached 
physical  maturity  for  motherhood.  It  may  be  that  in 
the  present  conditions  of  girls'  education,  such  right 
direction  of  this  choice  as  occurs,  is  just  as  likely  to 
occur  at  the  earlier  age  as  at  any  later  one,  when  in- 
deed it  may  happen  that  considerations  more  worldly 
and  prudential,  less  generally  natural  and  eugenic,  may 
come  to  have  greater  weight.  One  can,  therefore,  only 
leave  it  to  the  reader's  consideration  whether  it  is  not 


The  Marriage  Age^for  Girls  215 

high  time  that  we  should  so  seek  to  prepare  the  girl's 
mind,  that  when  her  body  is  ready  for  marriage  her 
mind  may,  if  possible,  be  ready  also  to  guide  her  to- 
wards a  worthy  choice  which  the  whole  of  her  future 
life  may  ratify,  and  the  life  of  her  descendants  there- 
after. 

It  must  be  insisted  again  that  this  question  has  many 
ramifications,  and  that  not  the  least  important  of  them 
are  those  which  concern  themselves  with  the  kinds  of 
disease  already  referred  to.  Some  enemy  of  God  and 
man  once  invented  a  phrase  about  the  desirability  of 
young  men  sowing  their  wild  oats,  and  subsequent  ene- 
mies of  life  and  the  good  and  progress,  or  perhaps 
mere  fools,  animated  gramophones  of  a  cheap  pattern, 
have  repeated  and  still  propagate  that  doctrine.  It  is 
poisonous  to  its  core;  it  never  did  any  one  any  good, 
and  has  done  incalculable  harm.  It  has  blinded  the 
eyes  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  babies;  it  has 
brought  hundreds  of  thousands  more  rotten  into  the 
world.  Hosts  of  dead  men,  women,  and  children  are 
its  victims.  It  is  indeed  good  that  a  man  should  be  a 
man,  and  not  a  worm  on  stilts;  it  is  indeed  good  that 
women  should  prefer  men  to  be  men,  and  that  as  soon 
as  possible  they  should  cease  to  accept  in  marriage  the 
feeble,  the  cowardly,  the  echoers,  and  the  sheep.  But 
this  is  a  very  different  thing  from  asserting  that  it  is 
good  for  young  men,  before  marriage,  to  adopt  a 
standard  of  morality  which  would  be  thought  shameful 
beyond  words  in  their  sisters,  and  which  has  all  the 
horrible  consequences  that  have  been  alluded  to,  and 
many  more.  Now,  vicious  though  the  wild  oats  doc- 


2i6  Woman  and  Womanhood 

trine  be  in  itself  and  in  its  consequences,  we  have  to 
grant  that  there  is  little  need  of  it,  for  young  manhood 
needs  the  insertion  of  no  doctrines  from  without  to 
encourage  it  towards  the  satisfaction  of  what  are  in 
themselves  natural  and  healthy  tendencies.  Our  right 
procedure  therefore  should  be — notwithstanding  the 
unhealthy  tendency  of  high  civilization  in  this  respect, 
and  notwithstanding  the  terrible  folly,  traitorous  to 
their  sex,  of  those  women  who  decry  marriage,  and 
seek  to  delay  it — to  prepare  girlhood  and  public  opin- 
ion, and  even  to  modify,  so  far  as  may  be  necessary, 
economic  conditions,  in  order  that  the  girls  who  are 
worthy  to  marry  at  all  shall  do  so  at  the  right  age, 
and  shall  join  themselves  for  life  with  rightly  chosen 
men. 

One  more  point  may  be  conveniently  considered 
here,  though  it  is  not  strictly  a  matter  of  the  marriage 
age  for  girls.  The  point  is  as  to  the  most  generally 
desirable  age  relation  between  husband  and  wife. 
Here,  again,  we  must  remind  ourselves  that  it  is  im- 
possible to  lay  down  the  law  for  any  case,  and  that 
that  is  not  what  we  are  now  attempting  to  do. 

As  every  one  knows,  there  is  an  average  disparity  of 
some  few  years  in  the  ages  of  husband  and  wife. 
This  may  be  referred  probably  to  economic  conditions 
in  part,  and  also  to  the  fact  that  girlhood  becomes 
womanhood  at  a  somewhat  earlier  age  than  boyhood 
becomes  manhood.  The  girl  is  more  precocious. 
Thus  though  she  be  twenty  and  her  husband  twenty- 
three,  she  is  as  mature. 

It  is  probable  that  the  economic  tendencies  of  the 


The  Marriage  Age  for  Girls  21 7 

day  are  in  the  direction  of  increasing  this  disparity, 
since  more  is  demanded  of  the  man  in  the  material 
sense,  and  he  therefore  must  delay.  Some  authorities 
consider  that  seniority  o£  six  or  eight  years  on  the  part 
of  the  husband  constitutes  the  desirable  average.  But 
there  are  considerations  commonly  ignored  that  should 
qualify  this  opinion  in  my  judgment. 

It  is  not  that  science  has  any  information  regarding 
the  consequence  upon  the  sex  or  quality  of  offspring 
of  any  one  age  ratio  in  marriage  rather  than  another. 
On  subjects  like  this  wild  statements  are  incessantly 
being  made,  and  we  are  often  told  that  certain  conse- 
quences in  offspring  follow  when  the  husband  is  older 
than  the  wife,  and  others  when  he  is  younger,  and  so 
forth.  As  to  this,  nothing  is  known,  and  it  is  improb- 
able that  there  is  anything  to  know.  But  it  has  usually 
been  forgotten,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  that  the  dis- 
parity of  age  has  a  very  marked  and  real  consequence, 
which  is,  in  its  turn,  the  cause  of  many  more  conse- 
quences. 

We  have  seen  that  the  male  death-rate  is  higher 
than  the  female  death-rate.  At  all  ages,  whether  be- 
fore birth  or  after  it,  the  male  expectation  of  life  is 
less  than  the  female.  This  is  more  conspicuously  true 
than  ever  now  that  the  work  of  Lord  Lister,  based 
upon  that  of  Pasteur,  has  so  enormously  lowered  the 
mortality  in  child-birth.  Even  now  that  mortality  is 
falling,  and  will  rapidly  fall  for  some  time  to  come, 
still  further  increasing  the  female  advantage  in  expec- 
tation of  life;  the  more  especially  this  applies  to  mar- 
ried women.  If  now,  this  being  the  natural  fact,  we 


2l8  Woman  and  Womanhood 

have  most  husbands  older  than  their  wives,  it  follows 
that  in  a  great  preponderance  of  cases  the  husband  will 
die  firsthand  so  we  have  produced  the  phenomenon 
of  widowhood.  The  greater  the  seniority  of  the  hus- 
band, the  more  widowhood  will  there  be  in  a  society. 
Every  economic  tendency,  every  demand  for  a  higher 
standard  of  life,  every  aggravation  for  the  struggle  for 
existence,  every  increment  of  the  burden  of  the  defec- 
tive-minded, tending  to  increase  the  man's  age  at  mar- 
riage, which,  on  the  whole,  involves  also  increasing  his 
seniority — contributes  to  the  amount  of  widowhood  in 
a  nation. 

We  therefore  see  that,  as  might  have  been  expected, 
this  question  of  the  age  ratio  in  marriage,  though  first 
to  be  'considered  from  the  average  point  of  view  of  the 
girl,  has  a  far  wider  social  significance.  First,  for  her- 
self, the  greater  her  husband's  seniority,  the  greater 
are  her  chances  of  widowhood,  which  is  in  any  case  the 
destiny  of  an  enormous  preponderance  of  married 
women.  But  further,  the  existence  of  widowhood  is 
a  fact  of  great  social  importance  because  it  so  often 
means  unaided  motherhood,  and  because,  even  when  it 
does  not,  the  abominable  economic  position  of  woman 
in  modern  society  bears  hardly  upon  her.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  pursue  this  subject  further  at  the  present 
time.  But  it  is  well  to  insist  that  this  seniority  of  the 
husband  has  remoter  consequences  far  too  important 
to  be  so  commonly  overlooked. 


CHAPTER    XV 

THE    FIRST   NECESSITY 

AT  this  stage  in  our  discussion  it  is  necessary  to 
consider  a  subject  which  ought  rightly  to  come  fore- 
most in  the  provident  study  of  the  facts  that  precede 
marriage — a  subject  which  craven  fear  and  ignorance 
combine  to  keep  out  of  sight,  yet  which  must  now 
see  the  light  of  day.  For  the  writer  would  be  false 
to  his  task,  and  guilty  of  a  mere  amateur  trifling 
with  the  subject,  who  should  spend  page  after  page  in 
discussing  the  choice  of  marriage,  the  best  age  for  mar- 
riage, and  so  forth,  without  declaring  that  as  an  ab- 
solutely essential  preliminary  it  is  necessary  that  the 
girl  who  mates  shall  at  least,  whatever  else  be  or  be 
not  possible,  mate  with  a  man  who  is  free  from  gross 
and  foul  disease. 

The  two  forms  of  disease  to  which  we  must  refer 
are  appalling  in  their  consequences,  both  for  the  in- 
dividual and  the  future.  In  technical  language  they 
are  called  contagious;  meaning  that  the  infection  is 
conveyed  not  through  the  air  as,  say,  in  the  case  of 
measles  or  small-pox,  but  by  means  of  contact  with 
some  infected  surface — it  may  be  a  lip  in  the  act  of 
kissing,  a  cup  in  drinking,  a  towel  in  washing,  and  so 
forth.  Of  both  these  terrible  diseases  this  is  true. 

219 


22O  Woman  and  Womanhood 

They  therefore  rank,  like  leprosy,  as  amongst  the  most 
eminently  preventable  diseases.  Leprosy  has  in  con- 
sequence been  completely  exterminated  in  England,  but 
though  venereal  disease — the  name  of  the  two  con- 
tagions considered  together — diminishes,  it  is  still 
abundant  everywhere  and  in  all  classes  of  society. 
Here  regarding  it  only  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
girl  who  is  about  to  mate,  I  declare  with  all  the  force 
of  which  I  am  capable  that,  many  and  daily  as  are  the 
abominations  for  which  posterity  will  hold  us  up  to 
execration,  there  is  none  more  abominable  in  its  im- 
mediate and  remote  consequences,  none  less  capable  of 
apology  than  the  daily  destruction  of  healthy  and 
happy  womanhood,  whether  in  marriage  or  outside  it, 
by  means  of  these  diseases.  At  all  times  this  is  horri- 
ble, and  it  is  more  especially  horrible  when  the  help- 
less victim  is  destroyed  with  the  blessing  of  the  Church 
and  the  State,  parents  and  friends;  everyone  of  whom 
should  ever  after  go  in  sackcloth  and  ashes  for  being 
privy  to  such  a  deed. 

The  present  writer,  for  one,  being  a  private  indi- 
vidual, the  servant  of  the  public,  and  responsible  to  no 
body  smaller  than  the  public,  has  long  declined  and  will 
continue  to  decline  to  join  the  hateful  conspiracy  of 
silence,  in  virtue  of  which  these  daily  horrors  lie  at 
the  door  of  the  most  honoured  and  respected  indi- 
viduals and  professions  in  the  community.  More 
especially  at  the  doors  of  the  Church  and  the  medi- 
cal profession  there  lies  the  burden  of  shame  that, 
as  great  organized  bodies  having  vast  power,  they 
should  concern  themselves,  as  they  daily  do,  with  their 


The  First  Necessity  221 

own  interests  and  honour,  without  realizing  that  where 
things  like  these  are  permitted  by  their  silence,  their 
honour  is  smirched  beyond  repair  in  whatever  Eyes 
there  be  that  regard. 

I  propose  therefore  to  say  in  this  chapter  that 
which  at  the  least  cannot  but  have  the  effect  of  saving 
at  any  rate  a  few  girls  somewhere  throughout  the  Eng- 
lish-speaking world  from  one  or  other  or  both  of  these 
diseases,  and  their  consequences.  Let  those  only  who 
have  ever  saved  a  single  human  being  from  either 
syphilis  or  gonorrhoea  dare  to  utter  a  word  against 
the  plain  speaking  which  may  save  one  woman 
now. 

The  task  may  be  much  lightened  by  referring  the 
reader  to  a  play  by  the  bravest  and  wisest  of  modern 
dramatists,  M.  Brieux,  more  especially  because  the 
reader  of  "  Les  Avaries  "  will  be  enabled  to  see  the 
sequence  of  causation  in  its  entirety.  When  first  our 
attention  is  called  to  these  evils,  we  are  apt  to  blame 
the  individuals  concerned.  The  parents  of  youths, 
finding  their  sons  infected,  will  blame  neither  their 
guilty  selves  nor  their  sons,  but  those  who  tempted 
them.  It  is  constantly  forgotten  that  the  unfortunate 
woman  wrho  infected  the  boy  was  herself  first  infected 
by  a  man.  Either  she  was  betrayed  by  an  individual 
blackguard,  or  our  appalling  carelessness  regarding 
girlhood,  and  the  economic  conditions  which,  for  the 
glory  of  God  and  man,  simultaneously  maintain  Park 
Lane  and  prostitution,  forced  her  into  the  circum- 
stances which  brought  infection.  But  she  was  once  as 
harmless  and  innocent  as  the  girl  child  of  any  reader 


222  Woman  and  Womanhood 

of  this  book;  and  it  was  man  who  first  destroyed  her 
and  made  her  the  instrument  of  further  destruction. 

Ask  how  this  came  to  be  so,  and  the  answer  is  that 
he  in  his  turn  was  infected  by  some  woman. 

It  is  time,  then,  that  we  ceased  to  blame  youth  of 
either  sex,  and  laid  the  onus  where  it  lies — upon  the 
shoulders  of  older  people,  and  more  especially  upon 
those  who  by  education  and  profession,  or  by  the  func- 
tions they  have  undertaken,  such  as  parenthood,  ought 
to  know  the  facts  and  ought  to  act  upon  their  knowl- 
edge. It  is  necessary  to  proceed,  therefore :  though 
perfectly  aware  that  in  many  ways  this  chapter  will 
have  to  be  paid  for  by  the  writer:  that  he  has  yet  to 
meet  the  eye  of  his  publisher;  that  there  will  be  abun- 
dance of  abuse  from  those  "  whose  sails  were  never  to 
the  tempest  given  " :  but  aware  also  that  in  time  to 
come  those  few  who  dared  speak  and  take  their  chance 
in  this  matter,  whether  remembered  or  not,  will  have 
been  the  pioneers  in  reforming  an  abuse  which  daily 
makes  daylight  hideous.  He  who  does  betray  the  fu- 
ture for  fear  of  the  present  should  tread  timidly  upon 
his  Mother  Earth  lest  he  awake  her  to  gape  and  bury 
her  treacherous  son. 

Something  is  known  by  the  general  public  of  the 
individual  consequences  of  syphilis.  It  is  known  by 
many,  also,  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  hereditary 
syphilis — babies  being  born  alive  but  rotted  through 
for  life.  Further,  it  is  not  at  all  generally  known, 
though  the  fact  is  established,  that  of  the  compara- 
tively few  survivors  to  adult  life  from  amongst  such 
babies,  some  may  transmit  the  disease  even  to  the  third 


The  First  Necessity  223 

generation.  There  is  a  school  of  so-called  moralists 
who  regard  all  this  as  the  legitimate  and  providential 
punishment  for  vice,  even  though  ten  innocent  be  de- 
stroyed for  one  guilty.  Such  moralists,  more  loath- 
some than  syphilis  itself,  may  be  left  in  the  gathering 
gloom  to  the  company  of  their  ghastly  creed.  Love 
and  man  and  woman  are  going  forward  to  the  dawn, 
and  if  they  inherit  from  the  past  no  God  that  is  fit 
to  be  their  companion,  they  and  the  Divine  within  them 
will  not  lose  heart. 

The  public  knowledge  of  syphilis,  though  far  short 
of  the  truth,  is  not  merely  so  inadequate  as  that  of 
gonorrhoea. 

li  No  worse  than  a  bad  cold  "  is  the  kind  of  lie  with 
which  youth  is  fooled.  The  disease  may  sometimes 
be  little  worse  than  a  bad  cold  in  men,  though  very 
often  it  is  far  more  serious;  it  may  kill,  may  cause  last- 
ing damage  to  the  coverings  of  the  heart  and  to  the 
joints,  and  often  may  prevent  all  possibility  of  future 
fatherhood. 

These  evils  sink  almost  into  insignificance  when 
compared  with  the  far  graver  consequences  of  gonor- 
rhoea in  woman.  Our  knowledge  of  this  subject  is  com- 
paratively recent,  being  necessarily  based  upon  the  dis- 
covery of  the  microbe  that  causes  the  disease.  Now 
that  it  can  be  identified,  we  learn  that  a  vast  propor- 
tion of  the  illnesses  and  disorders  peculiar  to  women 
have  this  cause,  and  it  constantly  leads  to  the  opera- 
tions, now  daily  carried  out  in  all  parts  of  the  world, 
which  involve  opening  the  body,  and  all  that  that  may 
entail.  Curable  in  its  early  stages  in  men,  gonorrhoea 


224  Woman  and  Womanhood 

is  scarcely  curable  in  women  except  by  means  of  a 
grave  abdominal  operation,  involving  much  risk  to  life 
and  only  to  be  undertaken  after  much  suffering  has 
failed  to  be  met  by  less  drastic  means.  The  various 
consequences  of  gonorrhoea  in  other  parts  of  the  body 
may  and  do  occur  in  women  as  in  men.  Perhaps  the 
most  characteristic  consequence  of  the  disease  in  both 
sexes  is  sterility;  this  being  much  more  conspicuously 
the  case  in  women,  and  being  the  more  cruel  in  their 
case. 

Of  course  large  numbers  of  women  are  infected  with 
these  diseases  before  marriage  and  apart  from  it,  but 
one  or  both  of  them  constitute  the  most  important  of 
the  bridegroom's  wedding  presents,  in  countless  cases 
every  year,  all  over  the  world.  The  unfortunate  bride 
falls  ill  after  marriage;  she  may  be  speedily  cured; 
very  often  she  is  ill  for  life,  though  major  surgery  may 
relieve  her;  and  in  a  large  number  of  cases  she  goes 
forever  without  children.  One  need  scarcely  refer  to 
the  remoter  consequences  of  syphilis  to  the  nervous 
system,  including  such  diseases  as  locomotor  ataxia, 
and  general  paralysis  of  the  insane;  the  latter  of  which 
is  known  to  be  increasing  amongst  women.  Even  in 
these  few  words,  which  convey  to  the  layman  no  idea 
whatever  of  the  pains  and  horrors,  the  shocking  ero- 
sion of  beauty,  the  deformities,  the  insanities,  incurable 
blindness  of  infants,  and  so  forth,  that  follow  these 
diseases,  enough  will  yet  have  been  said  to  indicate  the 
importance  of  what  is  to  follow.  Medical  works  abound 
in  every  civilized  language  which,  especially  as  illus- 
trated either  by  large  masses  of  figures  or  by  photo- 


The  First  Necessity  22$ 

graphs  of  cases,  will  far  more  than  justify  to  the  reader 
everything  that  has  been  said.  . 

And  now  for  the  whole  point  of  this  chapter.  We 
are  not  here  concerned  to  deal  with  prostitution  or  its 
possible  control.  We  are  dealing  with  girlhood  before 
marriage  and  in  relation  to  marriage,  and  the  plea  is 
Goethe's — for  more  light.  There  is  no  need  to  hor- 
rify or  scandalize  or  disgust  young  womanhood,  but 
it  is  perfectly  possible  in  the  right  way  and  at  the  right 
time  to  give  instruction  as  to  certain  facts,  and  whilst 
quite  admitting  that  there  are  hosts  of  other  things 
which  we  must  desire  to  teach,  I  maintain  that  this 
also  must  we  do  and  not  leave  the  others  undone.  It  is 
untrue  that  it  is  necessary  to  excite  morbid  curiosity, 
that  there  is  the  slightest  occasion  to  give  nauseous  or 
suggestive  details,  or  that  the  most  scrupulous  reti- 
cence in  handling  the  matter  is  incompatible  with  com- 
plete efficiency.  Such  assertions  will  certainly  be  made 
by  those  who  have  done  nothing,  never  will  do  any- 
thing, and  desire  that  nothing  shall  be  done;  they  are 
nothing,  let  them  be  treated  as  nothing. 

It  is  supposed  by  some  that  instruction  in  these  mat- 
ters must  be  useless  because,  in  point  of  fact,  imperious 
instincts  will  have  their  way.  It  is  nonsense.  Here, 
as  in  so  many  other  cases,  the  words  of  Burke  are  true 
— Fear  is  the  mother  of  safety.  It  is  always  the 
tempter's  business  to  suggest  to  his  victim  that  there 
is  no.  danger.  Often  and  often,  if  convinced  there  is 
danger,  and  danger  of  another  kind  than  any  he  refers 
to,  she  will  be  saved.  This  may  be  less  true  of  young 
men.  In  them  the  racial  instinct  is  stronger,  and  per- 


226  Woman  and  Womanhood 

haps  a  smaller  number  will  be  protected  by  fear,  but 
no  one  can  seriously  doubt  that  the  fear  born  of  knowl- 
edge would  certainly  protect  many  young  women. 

There  is  also  the  possible  criticism,  made  by  a  school 
of  moralists  for  whom  I  have  nothing  but  contempt 
so  entire  that  I  will  not  attempt  to  disguise  it,  who 
maintain  that  these  are  unworthy  motives  to  which  to 
appeal,  and  that  the  good  act  or  the  refraining  from 
an  evil  one,  effected  by  means  of  fear,  is  of  no  value 
to  God.  In  the  same  breath,  however,  these  moral- 
ists will  preach  the  doctrine  of  hell.  We  reply  that 
we  merely  substitute  for  their  doctrine  of  hell — which 
used  to  be  somewhere  under  the  earth,  but  is  now 
who  knows  where — the  doctrine  of  a  hell  upon  the 
earth,  which  we  wish  youth  of  both  sexes  to  fear;  and 
that  if  the  life  of  this  world,  both  present  and  to  come, 
be  thereby  served,  we  bow  the  knee  to  no  deity  whom 
that  service  does  not  please. 

How  then  should  we  proceed? 

It  seems  to  me  that  instruction  in  this  matter  may 
well  be  delayed  until  the  danger  is  near  at  hand.  This 
is  not  really  education  for  parenthood  in  the  more  gen- 
eral sense.  That,  on  the  principles  of  this  book,  can 
scarcely  begin  too  soon;  it  is,  further,  something  vastly 
more  than  mere  instruction,  though  instruction  is  one 
of  its  instruments.  But  here  what  we  require  is  sim- 
ply definite  instruction  to  a  definite  end  and  in  relation 
to  a  definite  danger.  At  some  stage  or  other,  before 
emerging  into  danger,  youth  of  both  sexes  must  learn 
the  elements  of  the  physiology  of  sex,  and  must  be 
made  acquainted  with  the  existence  and  the  possible 


The  First  Necessity  22 7 

results  of  venereal  disease.  A  /ather  or  a  teacher 
may  very  likely  find  it  almost  impossible  to  speak  to  a 
boy;  even  though  he  has  screwed  his  courage  up  al- 
most to  the  sticking  place,  the  boy's  bright  and  innocent 
eyes  disarm  him.  Unfortunately  boys  are  often  less 
innocent  than  they  look.  There  exists  far  more  infor- 
mation among  youth  of  both  sexes  than  we  suppose; 
only  it  is  all  coloured  by  pernicious  and  dangerous 
elements,  the  fruit  of  our  cowardice  and  neglect.  Let 
us  confine  ourselves  to  the  case  of  the  girl. 

Before  a  girl  of  the  more  fortunate  classes  goes  out 
into  society,  she  must  be  protected  in  some  way  or  an- 
other. If  she  be,  for  instance,  convent  bred,  or  if 
she  come  from  an  ideal  home,  it  may  very  well  be  and 
often  is  that  she  needs  no  instruction  whatever,  because 
she  is  in  fact  already  made  unapproachable  by  the 
tempter.  Fortunate  indeed  is  such  a  girl.  But  those 
forming  this  well-guarded  class  are  few,  and  parents 
and  guardians  may  often  be  deceived  and  assume  more 
than  they  are  entitled  to.  At  any  rate,  for  the  vast 
majority  of  girls  some  positive  instruction  is  necessary. 
It  is  the  mother  who  must  undertake  this  responsible 
and  difficult  task  before  she  admits  the  girl  to  the  perils 
of  the  world.  Further,  by  some  means  or  other,  in- 
struction must  be  afforded  for  the  ever-increasing  army 
of  girls  who  go  out  to  business.  It  is  to  me  a  never 
ceasing  marvel  that  loving  parents,  devoted  to  their 
daughters'  welfare,  should  fail  in  this  cardinal  and 
critical  point  of  duty,  so  constantly  as  they  do. 

Many  employers  of  female  labour  nowadays  show 
a  genuine  and  effective  interest  in  the  welfare  of  their 


228  Woman  and  Womanhood 

employees.  As  one  might  expect,  this  is  notably  the 
case  with  the  Quaker  manufacturers  of  chocolate  and 
cocoa.  I  have  visited  the  works  of  one  of  these  firms, 
and  can  testify  to  the  splendidly  intelligent  and  scrupu- 
lous care  which  is  taken  of  the  girls'  general  health, 
their  eye-sight,  their  reading,  and  many  aspects  of  their 
moral  welfare.  Yet  there  still  remains  something  to 
be  done  in  regard  to  protection  from  venereal  disease, 
and  surely  the  suggestion  that  conscientious  employers 
should  have  instruction  given  in  these  matters  is  one 
which  is  well  worthy  of  consideration. 

It  is  known  by  all  observers — but  it  is  a  very  meagre 
"  all " — of  the  realities  of  politics  that  in  Great 
Britain,  at  any  rate,  there  is  an  increase  of  drinking 
amongst  women  and  girls.  This  is  doubtless  in  con- 
siderable measure  due  to  the  increase  of  work  in  facto- 
ries, and  the  greater  liberty  enjoyed  by  adolescence — 
liberty  too  often  to  become  enslaved.  This  bears  di- 
rectly upon  our  present  subject.  In  a  very  large  num- 
ber of  cases,  the  first  lapse  from  self-restraint  in  young 
people  of  both  sexes  occurs  under  the  influence  of  alco- 
hol, the  most  pre-eminent  character  of  whose  action 
upon  the  nervous  system  is  the  paralysis  of  inhibition 
or  control.  Not  only  is  alcohol  responsible  in  this 
way,  but  also  in  any  given  case  it  renders  infection 
more  probable  for  more  reasons  than  one.  This 
abominable  thing — in  itself  the  immediate  cause  of 
many  evils  and,  except  as  a  fuel  for  lifeless  machines 
and  for  industrial  purposes,  of  no  good — is  thus  the 
direct  ally  of  the  venereal  diseases  as  of  consumption 
and  many  more.  We  must  return  to  this  important 


The  First  Necessity  229 

subject  later:  meanwhile  let  itbenoted  that  the  influence 
of  alcohol  upon  youth  of  both  sexes  greatly  favours 
not  only  immorality  but  also  venereal  disease.  The 
girl,  therefore,  who  would  protect  herself  directly  will 
avoid  this  thing,  and  the  girl  who  desires  that  neither 
she  nor  her  children  shall  be  destroyed  after  mar- 
riage, will  exact  from  the  man  she  chooses  the  high- 
est possible  standard  of  conduct  in  this  matter.  A 
friendly  critic  has  told  me  that  my  books  would  be  all 
very  well,  but  that  I  have  alcohol  on  the  brain,  and  I 
am  inclined  to  reply,  Better  on  the  brain  than  in  the 
brain.  But  a  subject  so  serious  demands  more  serious 
treatment,  and  the  due  reply  is  that  there  is  no  human 
prospect  for  which  I  care,  no  public  advantage  to  be 
advocated,  no  good  I  know,  of  which  alcohol  is  not  the 
enemy;  no  abomination,  physical,  mental  or  moral,  in- 
dividual or  social,  of  which  it  is  not  the  friend.  Fur- 
ther, words  like  these  will  stand  on  record,  and  may  be 
remembered  when  there  has  been  achieved  that  slow 
but  irresistible  education  of  public  opinion,  to  which 
some  few  have  devoted  themselves,  and  of  which  the 
triumph  is  as  certain  as  the  triumph  of  all  truth  was 
in  the  beginning,  is  now,  and  ever  shall  be.  To  the 
many  charges  against  alcohol  made  by  the  champions 
of  life  in  the  past,  let  there  be  added  that  on  which  all 
students  of  venereal  diseases  are  agreed — that  it  is 
the  most  potent  ally  of  the  most  loathsome  evils  that 
afflict  mankind. 

This  chapter  is  not  yet  complete.  In  many  cases  it 
may  be  read  not  by  the  girl  who  is  contemplating  mar- 
riage, but  by  one  or  both  of  her  parents.  If  the  reader 


230  Woman  and  Womanhood 

be  such  an  one  I  here  charge  him  or  her  with  the  sol- 
emn responsibility  which  is  theirs  whether  they  real- 
ize it  or  not.  You  desire  your  daughter's  welfare; 
you  wish  her  to  be  healthy  and  happy  in  her  married 
life;  perhaps  your  heart  rejoices  at  the  thought  of 
grand-children;  you  concern  yourself  with  your  pro- 
spective son-in-law's  character,  with  his  income  and 
prospects;  you  wish  him  to  be  steady  and  sober;  you 
would  rather  that  he  came  of  a  family  not  conspicuous 
for  morbid  tendencies.  All  this  is  well  and  as  it  should 
be;  yet  there  is  that  to  be  considered  which,  whilst  it 
is  only  negative,  and  should  not  have  to  be  considered 
at  all,  yet  takes  precedence  of  all  these  other  questions. 
If  the  man  in  question  is  tainted  with  either  or  both 
of  these  diseases,  he  is  to  be  summarily  rejected  at  any 
rate  until  responsible  and,  one  may  suggest,  at  least 
duplicated  medical  opinion  has  pronounced  him  cured. 
Microscopic  examination  of  the  blood  or  otherwise 
can  now  pronounce  on  this  matter  with  much  more 
definiteness  than  used  to  be  possible.  But  even  so, 
there  are  possibilities  of  error,  for  experts  are  more 
and  more  coming  to  recognize  the  existence  and  the 
importance  of  latent  gonorrhoea,  devoid  of  character- 
istic symptoms  but  yet  liable  to  wake  in  the  individual 
and  always  dangerous  from  the  point  of  view  of  in- 
fection. No  combination  of  advantages  is  worth  the 
dust  in  the  balance  when  weighed  against  either  of 
these  diseases  in  a  prospective  sort-in-law :  infection  is 
not  a  matter  of  chance  but  of  certainty  or  little  short 
of  it.  Everything  may  seem  fair  and  full  of  promise, 
yet  there  may  be  that  in  the  case  which  will  wreck  all 


The  First  Necessity  231 

in  the  present;  not  to  mention  destroying  the  chance 
of  motherhood  or  bringing  rotten  or  permanently 
blinded  children  into  the  world. 

It  follows,  therefore,. that  parents  or  guardians  are 
guilty  of  a  grave  dereliction  of  duty  if  they  neglect  to 
satisfy  themselves  in  time  on  this  point.  Doubtless, 
in  the  great  majority  of  cases  no  harm  will  be  done. 
But  in  the  rest  irreparable  harm  is  often  done,  and 
the  innocent,  ignorant  girl  who  has  been  betrayed  by 
father  and  mother  and  husband  alike,  may  turn  upon 
you  all,  perhaps  on  her  death-bed,  perhaps  with  the 
blasted  future  in  her  arms,  and  say  "  This  is  your  do- 
ing: behold  your  deed." 

"But  if  ye  could  and   would  not,  oh,  what  plea, 
Think  ye,  shall  stead  you  at  your  trial,  when 
The  thunder-cloud  of  witnesses  shall  loom, 
With  Ravished  Childhood  on  the  seat  of  doom 
At  the  Assizes  of  Eternity  ?  " 

These  pages  may  disgust  or  offend  nine  hundred  and 
ninety-nine  readers  out  of  a  thousand.  They  may  yet 
save  one  girl,  and  will  have  justified  themselves. 

One  final  word  may  be  added  on  the  relation  of  this 
subject  to  Eugenics,  to  which  this  pen  and  voice  have 
been  for  many  years  devoted.  The  subject  of  ve- 
nereal disease  is  one  of  which  we  Eugenists,  like  the 
rest  of  the  world,  fight  shy;  yet  just  because  the  rest  of 
the  world  does  so,  we  should  not.  Nevertheless  I 
mean  to  see  to  it  that  this  subject  becomes  part  of  the 
Eugenic  campaign  which  will  yet  dominate  and  mould 
the  future.  For  surely  the  present  spectacle  has  ele- 


232  Woman  and  Womanhood 

ments  in  it  which  would  be  utterly  farcical  if  they 
were  not  so  tragic.  Here  we  have  life  present  and  life 
to  come  being  destroyed  for  lack  of  knowledge.  These 
horrible  diseases,  ravaging  the  guilty  and  the  innocent, 
equally  and  indifferently,  are  at  present  allowed  to  do 
so  with  scarcely  a  voice  raised  against  them.  Every 
day  husbands  infect  their  wives,  who  have  no  kind  of 
protection  or  remedy,  and  the  wicked,  grinning  face  of 
the  law  looks  on,  and  says  "  She  is  his  wife ;  all  is  well." 
If  we  had  courage  instead  of  cowardice — the  capital 
mark  of  an  age  that  has  no  organ  voice  but  many  steam 
whistles — we  could  accelerate  incalculably  the  gradual 
decrease  of  these  diseases.  The  body  of  eugenic 
opinion  which  is  being  made  and  multiplied  might  suc- 
ceed in  allying  the  Church  and  Medicine  and  the  Law, 
with  splendid  and  lasting  effect.  But  we  spend  thou- 
sands of  pounds  in  estimating  correlations  between  hair 
colour  and  conscientiousness,  fertility  and  longevity, 
stature  and  the  number  of  domestic  servants,  and  so 
forth,  meanwhile  protesting  against  too  hasty  attempts 
to  guide  public  opinion  on  these  refined  matters;  and 
this  tremendous  eugenic  reform,  which  awaits  the 
emergence  of  some  courage  somewhere,  is  left  alto- 
gether out  of  account.  There  was  no  allusion  to  the 
existence  of  venereal  disease,  far  and  away  the  most 
appalling  of  what  I  have  called  dysgenic  forces,  in  any 
official  eugenic  publication  until  April,  1909,  when  in 
the  Eugenics  Review  we  dared  to  make  a  cautious  and 
half-ashamed  beginning;  half-ashamed  to  stand  up 
against  syphilis  and  gonorrhoea.  When  one  thinks  of 
the  things  that  we  are  not  ashamed  to  do,  as  indi- 


The  First  Necessity  233 

viduals  or  as  nations,  it  is  to  reflect  that  perhaps  we 
have  "  let  the  tiger  die  "  too  utterly,  and  that  just  as 
woman  is  ceasing  to  be  a  mammal,  man  is  perhaps 
ceasing  to  be  even  a  vertebrate.  Is  there  no  Arch- 
bishop or  Principal  of  a  University  or  Chief  Justice 
or  popular  novelist  or  preacher  or  omnipotent  editor, 
boasting  a  backbone  still,  who  will  serve  not  only  his 
day  and  generation  but  all  future  days  and  genera- 
tions, by  devoting  himself  and  his  powers  to  this  long- 
delayed  campaign  wherein,  if  it  be  but  undertaken, 
success  is  certain,  and  reward  so  glorious?  * 

*  An  unavoidable  delay  in  the  publication  of  this  book  makes  possible  reference  to 
Professor  Ehrlich's  synthetic  compound  of  arsenic,  known  as  "606,"  the  anti-syphi- 
litic potency  of  which  will  render  even  less  excusable  the  cowardice  and  neglect  against 
which  the  foregoing  is  a  protest. 


CHAPTER   XVI 

ON  CHOOSING  A  HUSBAND 

BRIEF  reference  was  made  in  a  previous  chapter  to 
woman's  great  function  of  choosing  the  fathers  of  the 
future.  Here  we  must  discuss,  at  due  length,  her 
choice  of  a  companion  for  life.  It  is  repeatedly  ar- 
gued, by  critics  of  any  new  idea,  that  the  eugenist,  in 
his  concern  for  the  race,  is  blind  to  the  natural  inter- 
ests and  needs  of  the  individual;  that  "  we  are  all  to 
be  married  to  each  other  by  the  police,"  as  an  irre- 
sponsible jester  has  declared;  that  the  sanctities  of 
love  are  to  be  profaned  or  its  imperatives  defied.  Even 
serious  and  responsible  persons  assume  that  there  is 
here  a  necessary  antagonism  between  the  interests  of 
the  race  and  those  of  the  individual, — that  the  girl 
would,  presumably,  choose  one  man  to  be  her  love  and 
companion  and  partner  for  life,  but  another  man  as 
the  father  of  her  children.  There  are  those  whom 
it  always  rejoices  to  discover  what  they  regard  as  an- 
tinomies and  contradictions  in  Nature,  and  they  verily 
prefer  to  suppose  that  there  is  in  things  this  inherent 
viciousness,  which  sets  eternal  war  between  one  set 
of  obligations,  one  set  of  ideals,  and  another.  But 
Nature  is  not  made  according  to  the  pattern  of  our 
misunderstandings. 

234 


On   Choosing  a  Husband  235 

We  have  seen  that  ail  individuals  are  constructed 
by  Nature  for  the  future.  We  are  certainly  right  to 
regard  them  as  also  ends  in  themselves,  but  Nature 
conceived  and  fashioned  them  with  reference  to  the  fu- 
ture. In  so  far  as  marriage  has  a  natural  sanction 
and  foundation — than  which  nothing  is  more  certain 
— we  may  therefore  expect  to  discover  that  the  inter- 
ests of  the  individual  and  of  the  race  are  indeed  one. 
In  a  word,  the  man  who  is  most  worthy  to  be  chosen 
as  a  father  of  the  future  is  always  the  most  worthy 
and,  in  the  overwhelming  majority  of  cases,  is  also  the 
most  individually  suitable,  to  be  chosen  as  a  partner 
and  companion  for  life.  Let  the  girl  choose  wisely 
and  well  for  her  own  sake  and  in  her  own  interests. 
If,  indeed,  she  does  so,  the  future  will  be  almost  in- 
variably safeguarded. 

Of  course  it  is  to  be  understood  that  we  are  here 
discussing  general  principles.  Everyone  knows  that 
cases  exist,  and  must  continue  to  exist,  where  an  op- 
position between  the  interests  of  the  race  and  those  of 
the  individual  cannot  be  denied.  Some  utterly  unsus- 
pected hereditary  strain  of  insanity,  for  instance,  may 
show  itself  or  be  discovered  in  the  ancestry  of  an  in- 
dividual to  whom  a  member  of  the  opposite  sex  has 
already  become  devoted.  I  fully  admit  the  existence 
of  such  exceptions,  but  it  must  be  insisted  that  they 
are  exceptions,  and  that  they  do  not  at  all  invalidate 
the  general  truth  that  if  a  girl  really  chooses  the  best 
man,  she  is  choosing  the  best  father  for  her  children. 

It  is  when  the  girl  chooses  for  something  other  than 
natural  quality  that  the  future  is  liable  to  be  betrayed. 


236  Woman  and  Womanhood 

But  the  point  to  be  insisted  upon  is  that  it  is  far  more 
worth  her  while  to  choose  for  natural  quality  than  for 
any  other  considerations.  The  argument  of  this 
chapter  is  that  it  will  not  in  the  long  run  be  worth  the 
girl's  while  to  be  beguiled  by  a  man's  money,  his  posi- 
tion or  his  prospects,  since  all  of  these,  without  the 
one  thing  needful,  will  ultimately  fail  her. 

The  truth  is  that  very  few  girls  realize  how  intimate 
and  urgent  and  inevitable  and  unintermittent  are  the 
conditions  of  married  life.  It  requires  imagination, 
of  course,  to  understand  these  things  without  experi- 
ence. A  girl  observes  a  friend  who  has  made  what 
is  called  "  a  good  marriage  ";  she  goes  to  the  friend's 
house,  and  sees  her  the  triumphant  mistress  of  a  large 
establishment;  she  sees  her  friend  at  the  theatre,  meets 
her  escorted  by  her  husband  at  this  place  and  that; 
hears  of  her  holidays  abroad,  covets  her  jewelry,  and 
she  thinks  how  delightful  it  must  be.  She  knows  noth- 
ing at  all  of  the  realities;  she  sees  only  externals,  and 
she  is  misled.  Whenever  thus  misled  she  is  beguiled 
into  marrying  a  man  for  any  other  reason  than  that 
his  personal  qualities  compel  her  love,  it  is  her  se- 
niors who  are  to  blame  for  not  having  enlightened  her. 
Such  a  girl  shall  be  enlightened  if  her  eyes  fall  on 
these  pages. 

Happiness  does  not  consist  in  external  things  at  all. 
This  is  not  to  deny  that  external  things  may  largely 
contribute  to  happiness  if  its  primal  conditions  be  first 
satisfied.  Failing  those  primal  conditions,  externals 
are  a  mockery  and  a  burden.  In  the  case  of  the  vast 
majority  of  married  people  we  see  only  what  they 


On  Choosing  a  Husband  237 

choose  that  we  shall  see.  Almost  everyone  is  con- 
cerned with  keeping  up  appearances.  Things  may  be 
and  very  often  are  what  they  appear,  but  very  often 
they  are  not.  Any  woman  of  nice  feeling  is  very  much 
concerned  to  keep  up  appearances  in  the  matter  of  her 
marriage.  A  few  or  none"  may  guess  her  secret,  but 
whatever  we  see,  it  is  what  we  do  not  see — no  matter 
how  close  our  friendship  may  be — that  determines  the 
success  or  failure  of  marriage.  The  moments  that 
really  count  are  just  those  which  we  do  not  witness, 
and  such  moments  are  many  in  married  life,  or  should 
be.  If  the  marriage  is  what  it  ought  to  be,  there  is  a 
vital  communion,  grave  and  gay,  which  occupies  every 
available  part  of  life.  Only  the  persons  immediately 
concerned  really  know  how  much  of  this  they  have  or, 
if  they  have  it  not,  what  they  have  in  its  place.  But 
we  may  be  well  assured  that,  as  every  married  person 
knows,  it  is  the  personal  qualities  that  matter  every- 
thing in  this  most  intimate  sphere  of  life,  and  naught 
else  matters  at  all.  When  the  girl  marries  so  as  to 
become  possessed  of  any  and  every  kind  of  external 
advantage,  but  there  is  that  in  the  man  which  is  un- 
lovely or  which  she,  at  any  rate,  cannot  love,  her  mar- 
riage will  assuredly  be  a  failure.  As  we  have  occa- 
sion to  observe  every  day,  she  will  be  glad  to  jump  at 
any  chance  of  sacrificing  all  externals,  where  essentials 
thus  fail  her. 

This  is  only  to  preach  once  again  the  simple  doctrine 
that  a  girl  is  to  marry  a  man  not  for  what  he  has  but 
for  what  he  is.  If,  as  a  eugenist,  I  am  thinking  at  this 
time  as  much  of  the  future  as  of  the  present,  the  ad- 


238  Woman  and  Womanhood 

vice  is  none  the  less  trustworthy.  It  is  certain  that 
this  advice  is  no  less  necessary  than  it  ever  was. 
Everyone  knows  how  the  standard  of  luxury  has  risen 
during  the  last  few  decades,  both  in  England  and  in 
the  United  States.  All  history  lies  if  this  be  not  an 
evil  omen  for  any  civilization.  It  means,  among  other 
things,  that  more  effectively  than  ever  the  forces  of 
suggestion  and  imitation  and  social  pressure  are  being 
brought  to  bear,  to  vitiate  the  young  girl's  natural 
judgment,  deceiving  her  into  the  supposition  that  these 
things  which  seem  to  make  other  people  so  happy  are 
the  first  that  must  be  sought  by  her.  If  only  she  had 
the  merest  inkling  of  what  the  doctor  and  the  lawyer 
and  the  priest  could  tell  her  about  the  inner  life  of 
many  of  the  owners  of  these  well-groomed  and  mas- 
saged faces!  We  hear  much  of  the  failure  of  mar- 
riage, but  surely  the  amazing  thing  is  its  measure  of 
success  under  our  careless  and  irresponsible  meth- 
ods. For  happily  married  people  do  not  require 
intrigues  nor  divorces,  nor  do  they  furnish  subject 
matter  for  scandal.  It  is  because  people  do  not 
marry  for  their  personal  qualities,  but  for  things 
which,  personal  qualities  failing,  will  soon  turn  to  dust 
and  ashes  in  their  mouths,  that  their  disappointed 
lives  seek  satisfaction  in  all  these  unsatisfactory  and 
imperfect  ways.  As  we  all  know,  social  practice  dif- 
fers in  say,  France  and  England,  in  such  matters  as 
this;  and  there  are  those  who  tell  us  that  the  method 
whereby  natural  inclinations  are  ignored  is  highly  suc- 
cessful, and  has  just  as  much  to  be  said  for  it  as  has 
the  more  specially  Anglo-Saxon  method  of  allowing 


On   Choosing  a  Husband  239 

the  young  people  to  choose  each  other.  It  is  incom- 
prehensible how  any  observer  of  contemporary 
France,  its  divorce  rate  and  its  birth-rate,  can  up- 
hold such  a  contention.  On  the  contrary,  we  may 
be  more  and  more  convinced  that  Nature  knows  her 
business,  and  that  marriage,  which  is  a  natural  insti- 
tution, should  be  based,  irl  each  case,  upon  her  indi- 
cations. 

There  is  need  here  for  a  reform  which  is  more 
radical  and  fundamental  than  any  that  can  be  named, 
just  because  it  deals  with  our  central  social  institution, 
and  concerns  the  natural  composition  and  qualities  of 
the  next  generation.  I  mean  that  reform  in  education 
which  will  direct  itself  towards  rightly  moulding  and 
favouring  the  worthy  choice  of  each  other  by  young 
people,  and  especially  the  worthy  choice  of  men  by 
women.  It  will  further  come  to  be  seen  that  every- 
thing which  vitiates  this  choice — as,  for  instance,  the 
economic  dependence  of  women,  great  excess  of 
women  in  a  community,  the  inheritance  of  large  for- 
tunes— is  ultimately  to  be  condemned  on  that  final 
ground,  if  on  no  other. 

But  whilst  these  sociological  propositions  may  be 
laid  down,  let  us  see  what  can  be  said  in  the  present 
state  of  things,  by  way  of  advice  to  the  girl  into  whose 
hands  this  book  may  fall.  Perhaps  it  may  be  per- 
mitted to  use  the  more  direct  form  of  address. 

You  may  have  been  told  that  where  poverty  comes 
in  at  the  door,  love  flies  out  at  the  window.*  You 

*  This  is  a  libel  upon  poor  people  everywhere.     There  has  been  some  confusion 
between  drink  and  poverty. 


240  Woman  and  Womanhood 

may  have  heard  it  said  that  so  and  so  has  made  a  good 
marriage  because  her  husband  has  a  large  income. 
You  may  be  inclined  to  judge  the  success  of  marriage 
by  what  you  see.  I  warn  you  solemnly  that  the  worth 
or  unworth  of  your  marriage,  the  success  or  failure  of 
your  life  will  depend,  far  more  than  upon  all  other 
things  put  together,  upon  the  personal  qualities  of  the 
man  you  choose. 

If  these  be  not  good  in  themselves,  your  marriage 
will  fail,  certainly;  even  if  they  be  good  in  themselves 
your  marriage  will  fail,  probably,  unless  they  also  be 
nicely  adapted  to  your  own  character  and  tastes  and 
temperament  and  needs.  There  are  thus  two  distinct 
requirements;  the  first  absolutely  cardinal,  the  second 
very  nearly  so.  You  are  utterly  wrong  if  you  suppose 
that  the  first  of  these  can  be  ignored:  if  your  husband 
is  not  a  worthy  man,  you  are  doomed.  And  you  are 
almost  certainly  wrong  if  you  suppose  that  lack  of 
community  in  tastes  and  in  interests,  in  objects  of  ad- 
miration and  adoration  does  not  matter.  But  let  us 
consider  what  are  the  factors  of  the  man  for  which  a 
girl  does  choose. 

For  what,  if  it  comes  to  that,  does  a  man  choose? 
Here  is  Herbert  Spencer's  reply  to  that  question: — 
"  The  truth  is  that  out  of  the  many  elements  uniting 
in  various  proportions,  to  produce  in  a  man's  breast 
the  complex  emotion  we  call  love,  the  strongest  are 
those  produced  by  physical  attractions;  the  next  in 
order  of  strength  are  those  produced  by  moral  attrac- 
tions; the  weakest  are  those  produced  by  intellectual 
attractions;  and  even  these  are  dependent  less  on  ac- 


On  Choosing  a  Husband  241 

quired  knowledge  than  on  natural  faculty — quickness, 
wit,  insight.'*  It  will  probably  be  agreed  that,  on  the 
whole,  this  analysis,  which  is  certainly  true  in  the  di- 
rection it  refers  to,  is  also  true  in  the  converse  direc- 
tion. The  girl  admires  a  man  for  physical  qualities, 
including  what  may  be  called  the  physical  virtues,  like 
energy  and  courage.  She  Kates  highly  certain  moral 
attractions,  such  as  unselfishness  and  chivalry,  but 
perhaps  she  attaches  far  more  value  to  intellectual  at- 
tractions than  the  man  does  in  her  case,  doubtless  be- 
cause they  are  more  distinctively  masculine. 

No  doubt,  in  this  order  of  importance  both  sexes 
are  consulting  the  eugenic  end  if  they  knew  it,  as  Spen- 
cer, indeed,  pointed  out  nearly  half  a  century  ago. 
The  passage  from  which  we  have  quoted  he  thus  con- 
tinues : — 

"  If  any  think  the  assertion  a  derogatory  one,  and  inveigh 
against  the  masculine  character  for  being  thus  swayed,  we 
reply  that  they  little  know  what  they  say  when  they  thus  call 
in  question  the  Divine  ordinations.  Even  were  there  no  ob- 
vious meaning  in  the  arrangement,  we  may  be  sure  that  some 
important  end  was  subserved.  But  the  meaning  is  quite 
obvious  to  those  who  examine.  When  we  remember  that  one 
of  Nature's  ends,  or  rather  her  supreme  end,  is  the  welfare  of 
posterity;  further  that,  in  so  far  as  posterity  are  concerned,  a 
cultivated  intelligence  based  on  a  bad  physique  is  of  little 
worth,  since  its  descendants  will  die  out  in  a  generation  or 
two:  and  conversely  that  a  good  physique,  however  poor  the 
accompanying  mental  endowments,  is  worth  preserving,  be- 
cause, throughout  future  generations,  the  mental  endowments 
may  be  indefinitely  developed;  we  perceive  how  important  is 
the  balance  of  instincts  above  described." 


242  Woman  and  Womanhood 

But  here  it  will  be  well  to  consider  and  meet  a  pos- 
sible criticism.  This  is  none  the  less  necessary  because 
there  is  a  very  common  type  of  mind  which  listens  to 
the  enunciation  of  principles  not  in  order  to  grasp 
them,  but  in  order  to  point  out  exceptions.  Such  peo- 
ple forget  that  before  one  can  profitably  observe  ex- 
ceptions to  a  principle  or  a  natural  law  it  is  necessary 
first  of  all  to  know  rightly  and  wholly  what  the  prin- 
ciple is.  Now  in  this  particular  case  our  principle  is 
that  the  cause  of  the  future  must  not  be  betrayed,  and 
the  essential  argument  of  this  chapter  is  that  faithful- 
ness to  the  cause  of  the  future  does  not  involve,  as  is 
commonly  supposed,  any  denial  of  the  interests  of  the 
present,  since,  as  I  maintain,  he  who  is  best  worth 
choosing  as  a  partner  for  life  is  in  general  best  worth 
choosing  as  a  father  of  the  future. 

Now  what  one  must  here  reckon  with  is  the  exist- 
ence of  individual  cases, — much  commoner  doubtless 
in  the  imagination  of  critics  than  in  reality,  but  never- 
theless worthy  of  study — where  a  man  may  gain  a 
woman's  love  of  the  -real  .kind  and  may  return  it,  and 
yet  may  be  unfit  for  parenthood.  The  converse  case 
:is  equally  'likely,  ;but  here  we  are  concerned  especially 
with  the  interests  of  the  woman.  She  is,  shall  we  say, 
a  nurse  in  a  sanatorium  for  consumptives  or,  to  sup- 
pose a  case  more  critical  and  complicated  still,  she  may 
herself  be  a  patient  in  such  a  sanatorium.  There  she 
imeets  another  patient  with  whom  she  falls  in  love. 
Now  these  two  may  be  well  fitted  to  make  each  other 
happy  for  so  long  as  fate  permits,  but  if  the  interests 
of  the  future  are  to  be  considered  they  should  not  be- 


On  Choosing  a  Husband  243 

come  parents.  I  must  not  be  taken  as  here  assenting 
to  the  old  view,  dating  from  a  time  when  nothing  was 
known  of  the  disease,  which  regards  consumption  as 
hereditary.  It  is  evident  that  quite  apart  from  that 
question  the  couple  of  whom  we  are  thinking  should 
not  become  parents.  It  is  possible  that  the  disease 
may  be  completely  cured,  and  the  situation  will  then 
be  altered.  But  only  too  often  the  patient's  life  will 
be  much  shortened  and  children  will  be  left  fatherless ; 
they  also  in  certain  circumstances  will  run  a  grave  risk 
of  being  infected  by  living  with  consumptive  parents. 
If  in  the  case  we  are  supposing  the  woman  be  also  con- 
sumptive, it  is  extremely  probable  that  motherhood  on 
her  part  would  aggravate  and  hasten  the  course  of  the 
disease,  it  being  well-known  that  pregnancy  has  an  ex- 
tremely unfavourable  influence  on  consumption  in  the 
majority  of  cases. 

Many  other  parallel  cases  may  be  imagined. 
Woman's  love,  based  perhaps  mainly  upon  the  ma- 
ternal instinct  of  tenderness,  may  be  called  forth  by  a 
man  who  suffers  from,  shall  we  say,  haemophilia  or  the 
bleeding  disease.  He  may  be  in  every  way  the  best  of 
men,  worthy  to  make  any  woman  happy;  but  if  he  be- 
comes the  father  of  a  son,  it  will  probably  be  to  inflict 
great  cruelty  upon  his  child. 

What,  in  a  word,  are  we  to  say  of  such  cases  as 
these?  There  is  here  a  real  opposition,  as  it  would 
appear,  between  the  interests  of  the  present  and  the 
interests  of  the  future.  But  the  answer  is  that,  just  be- 
cause, and  just  in  so  far  as,  human  beings  are  provident 
and  responsible  and  worthy  of  the  name  of  human 


244  Woman  and  Womanhood 

beings,  the  opposition  can  be  practically  solved.  Not 
for  anything  must  we  betray  the  cause  of  the  unborn, 
but  marriage  does  not  necessarily  involve  parenthood, 
and  the  right  course — the  profoundly  right  and  deeply 
moral  course — in  such  cases  as  these,  is  marriage  with- 
out parenthood. 

On  every  hand  in  the  civilized  world  we  now  see 
childless  marriages,  the  number  of  which  incessantly 
increases;  they  are  an  ominous  symptom  of  excessive 
luxury  and  other  factors  of  decadence,  if  history  is  to 
be  trusted.  But  it  is  not  permissible  for  us,  without  spe- 
cial knowledge,  to  condemn  individuals,  whatever  we 
may  think  of  the  phenomenon  as  a  whole.  Yet  con- 
vention and  prejudice  are  curious  things,  and  people 
who  are  themselves  married  and  deliberately  childless, 
others  of  both  sexes  who  are  unmarried,  people  who 
have  never  raised  their  voices  against  themselves  or 
their  friends  who,  though  married,  are  childless,  be- 
cause they  have  little  courage  or  because  they  permit 
compliance  with  fashion's  demands  to  stifle  the  best 
parts  of  their  nature — such  people,  I  say,  will  actually 
be  found  to  protest,  with  the  sort  of  canting  righteous- 
ness which  does  its  best  to  smirch  the  Right,  against  this 
doctrine,  Marry }  but  do  not  have  children,  as  the  rule 
of  life  in  the  cases  under  discussion.  Nevertheless, 
this  is  the  moral  doctrine;  this  is  the  right  fruit  of 
knowledge,  and  knowledge  will  more  and  more  be  ap- 
plied to  this  high  end,  the  service  alike  of  the  present 
and  the  future.  We  must  not  allow  our  minds  to  be 
bullied  out  of  just  reasoning  because  the  possi- 
bility of  marriage  without  parenthood  is  often  abused. 


On  Choosing  a  Husband  245 

All  forms  of  knowledge,  like  all  other  forms  of 
power,  may  be  used  or  may  be  abused.  Knowl- 
edge has  no  moral  sign  attached  to  it,  but  neither 
has  it  any  immoral  sign  attached  to  it.  The  power 
to  control  parenthood  is  neither  good  nor  evil, 
but  like  any  other  power  may  serve  either  good  or 
evil.  Dynamite  may  cause  pn  explosion  which  buries 
a  hundred  men  in  a  living  grave,  or  it  may  blast  the 
rock  which  buries  them  and  set  them  free.  The  man 
of  science  is  false  to  his  creed  and  his  cause  if  he  de- 
clares that  there  is  any  order  of  knowledge  or  any  kind 
of  power  which  were  better  unknown  or  unavailable. 
For  many  years  past  we  have  been  told  that  the  power 
to  control  parenthood  is  wicked,  flying  in  the  face  of 
providence,  interfering  with  the  order  of  Nature — as 
if  every  act  worthy  of  the  human  name  were  not  an 
interference  with  the  order  of  Nature,  as  Nature  is 
conceived  by  fools;  and  even  to-day  the  churches,  vio- 
lently differing  from  each  other  in  the  region  of  in- 
comprehensibles,  are  at  least  agreed  in  anathematizing 
the  knowledge  and  the  power  to  control  parenthood. 
The  reply  to  them  is  the  demonstration,  here  made, 
of  the  fact  that  this  knowledge  may  be  used  for  no 
less  splendid  a  purpose  than  to  make  possible  the  hap- 
piness and  mutual  ennoblement  of  individual  lives  in 
cases  where  otherwise  such  a  consummation  would 
have  been  impossible  without  betrayal  of  the  life  of 
this  world  to  come. 

There  is  another  class  of  cases  to  which  convenient 
reference  may  here  be  made.  The  solution  to  be 
found  in  childless  marriage,  for  many  cases,  does  not 


246  Woman  and  Womanhood 

apply  to  those  in  which  there  is  present  disease  due  to 
living  organisms,  microbes  or  protozoa  which,  by  the 
mere  act  of  drinking  from  an  infected  cup,  by  kiss- 
ing and  so  forth,  may  be  passed  from  the  sick  to  the 
sound.  So  far  as  these  modes  of  infection  are  con- 
cerned, such  a  supposed  case  as  that  of  the  nurse  and 
the  consumptive  patient  who  fall  in  love  with  each 
other  comes  into  this  category.  But  infection  of  that 
kind  is  preventable.  In  the  case,  however,  of  the  ter- 
rible diseases  to  which  reference  has  been  made  in  a 
previous  chapter,  we  must  clearly  understand  that  it  is 
not  only  the  future  which  is  in  danger,  and  that  there- 
fore the  solution  of  childless  marriage  does  not  apply. 
Here  the  danger  is  irremovable  from  the  physical  es- 
sentia  of  the  marriage  itself,  and  in  such  a  case,  no 
matter  how  high  the  personal  qualities  of  the  man  who 
may,  for  instance,  have  been  infected  by  accident  in 
the  course  of  his  duty  as  a  doctor,  even  childless  mar- 
riage other  than  the  manage  blanc  must  be,  at  any 
rate,  postponed  until  the  disease  has  been  cured. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  reader  will  not  regard 
these  last  two  points,  which  have  had  to  be  dealt  with 
at  some  length,  as  irrelevant.  They  are  not  strictly 
part  of  the  general  proposition  that  a  girl  should 
marry  a  man  for  his  personal  qualities,  but  they  are 
surely  necessary  as  practical  comments  upon  that 
proposition  as  it  will  work  out  in  real  life.  We  may 
now  return  to  our  main  contention. 

In  our  quotation  from  Herbert  Spencer  we  may  no- 
tice the  significant  assertion  that  amongst  intellectual 
attractions  it  is  natural  faculty,  quickness,  wit  and  in- 
sight, rather  than  acquired  knowledge,  that  a  man  ad' 


On  Choosing  a  Husband  247 

mires  in  a  woman.  In  considering  that  point  the 
somewhat  hazardous  assertion  was  ventured  upon 
that  the  woman  rates  intellectual  attractions  in  the 
man  higher  than  he  does  in  her.  One  has  indeed  heard 
it  stated  that  a  man  marries  for  beauty  and  a  woman 
for  brains.  A  statement  so  brief  cannot  be  accurate 
in  such  a  case.  But  we  may  insist  upon  the  contrast 
between  acquired  knowledge  and  natural  faculty. 
Spencer  was  no  doubt  right  in  believing  that  man  val- 
ues the  natural  faculty  rather  than  the  acquired  knowl- 
edge. A  woman  no  doubt  does  so  too.  If  she  ad- 
mires a  man  for  being  an  encyclopaedia,  it  is  only,  one 
hopes,  because  she  admires  the  natural  qualities  of 
studiousness,  perseverance  and  memory  which  his 
knowledge  involves.  Nor  would  she  be  long  in  finding 
out  whether  his  knowledge  is  digested,  and  the  ca- 
pacity to  digest  it,  remember,  is  a  natural  faculty. 

The  reader  who  remembers  our  principle  that  the 
individual  exists  for  the  future  will  not  fail  to  see  what 
we  are  driving  at.  Directly  we  study  in  any  critical  way 
the  causes  of  attraction  among  the  sexes,  we  see  that 
under  healthy  conditions,  unvitiated  by  convention  or 
money,  it  is  always  the  inborn  rather  than  the  ac- 
quired that  counts.  If  Spencer  had  cared  to  pursue 
his  point  half  a  century  ago,  he  had  the  key  to  it  in 
his  hands.  Youth  prefers  the  natural  to  the  acquired 
qualities. 

Nature,  greatest  of  match-makers,  has  so  con- 
structed youth  because  she  is  a  Eugenist,  and  because 
she  knows  that  it  is  the  natural  qualities  and  not  the 
acquired  ones  which  are  transmitted  to  offspring. 


248  Woman  and  Womanhood 

And  now  it  may  be  shown  that  this  fact  wholly  con- 
sorts' with  our  contention  that  there  is  no  antinomy 
between  the  happiness  of  the  individual  and  the  hap- 
piness of  the  race  in  the  marriage  choice.  For  the 
race  it  is  only  the  natural  qualities  of  its  future  parents 
that  matter,  for  only  these  are  transmissible.  From 
the  strictly  eugenic  point  of  view,  therefore,  the  girl 
should  be  counselled  to  choose  her  mate,  not  merely 
on  the  ground  of  his  personal  qualities  but,  more 
strictly  still,  on  the  ground  of  those  personal  qualities 
which  are  natural  and  not  acquired.  And  my  last 
point  is  that  these  qualities,  which  are 'alone  of  lasting 
consequence  to  the  race,  alone  will  be  of  lasting  con- 
sequence to  her  during  her  married  life.  Veneers,  ac- 
quirements, technical  facilities,  knowledge  of  lan- 
guages, encyclopaedic  information,  elegance  of  speech 
and  even  of  conventional  manners — all  the  things 
which,  in  our  rough  classification,  we  may  call  ac- 
quired, may  attract  or  please  or  impress  her  for  a 
time,  but  when  the  ultimate  reckoning  is  made  she  will 
find  that  they  are  less  than  the  dust  in  the  balance.  I 
do  not  know  how  and  where  to  find  for  my  words  the 
emphasis  with  which  it  would  be  so  easy  to  endow  them 
if,  instead  of  addressing  an  unseen  and  strange  audi- 
ence, one  were  counselling  one's  own  daughter.  I 
should  say  to  her,  for  instance,  "  My  dear,  be  not  de- 
ceived. He  dresses  elegantly,  I  know,  and  makes 
himself  quite  nice  to  look  at.  Yet  it  is  not  his  clothes 
that  you  will  have  to  live  with,  but  himself;  and  the 
question  is  what  do  his  clothes  mean?  It  is  his  na- 
ture that  you  will  have  to  live  with.  What  fact  of 


On  Choosing  a  Husband  249 

his  nature  do  they  stand  for?  Is  it  that  he  is  vain  and 
selfish,  preferring  to  spend  his  money  upon  himself 
and  upon  the  exterior  of  his  person  rather  than  upon 
others  and  upon  the  adornment  of  his  mind;  or  is  it 
that  he  has  fine  natural  taste,  a  sense  of  beauty  and 
harmony  and  quiet  dignity  in  external  things?  "  The 
answer  to  these  questions  involves  his  wife's  happi- 
ness. How  strange  that  though  no  girl  will  marry  a 
man  because  she  is  attracted  by  the  elegance  of  his 
false  teeth,  yet  she  will  often  be  deceived  into  admir- 
ing other  things  which  are  just  as  much  acquired  and 
just  as  little  likely  to  afford  her  permanent  satisfac- 
tion as  the  products  of  his  dentist's  work-room!  If 
only  she  realized  that  these  other  things,  though  nice 
to  look  at,  are  no  more  himself  than  a  well-fitting 
dental  plate. 

Or  again:  "  You  like  his  talk;  he  strikes  you  as  well 
versed  in  human  affairs;  his  knowledge  of  men  and 
things  impresses  you;  he  has  travelled  and  can  talk 
easily  of  what  he  has  seen,  and  his  voice  is  elegant  and 
can  be  heard  in  many  tongues.  But  if  he  is  going  to 
say  bitter  things  to  you,  will  the  facility  of  his  diction 
make  them  less  bitter?  If  he  is  a  fool  in  his  heart 
— and  indeed  the  heart  alone  is  the  residence  of  folly 
or  wisdom — do  you  think  that  he  will  be  a  fool  the 
less  for  venting  his  folly  in  seven  languages  rather 
than  in  one?  I  quite  understand  your  admiring  his 
cleverness;  people  who  study  the  subject  tell  us,  you 
know,  that  a  woman  admires  in  a  man  things  which 
are  more  characteristic  of  men  than  of  women,  and 
that  men's  admiration  of  women  is  based  upon  the 


250  Woman  and  Womanhood 

same  good  principle.  But  in  this  bargain  men  have 
the  best  of  it  because  the  most  characteristic  thing  in 
woman  is  tenderness,  and  the  most  characteristic  thing 
in  man  is  cleverness;  and  which  do  you  think  is  the 
better  to  live  with?  What  is  the  virtue  in  clever- 
ness coupled  with,  for  instance,  a  malicious  tongue? 
What  is  the  virtue  in  clever  things  if  he  says  them  at 
your  expense?  The  vital  thing  for  you  is,  what  are 
the  uses  to  which  he  puts  his  knowledge  and  capaci- 
ties? That  he  knows  the  ways  of  the  world  may  im- 
press you,  but  does  he  know  them  to  admire  them? 
And  if  so,  where  does  he  stand  compared  with  an- 
other, who  is  less  versed  and  versatile,  but  who,  as 
your  heart  tells  you,  would  hate  the  ways  of  the  world 
if  he  did  know  them?  "  .  .  . 

Indeed,  I  seem  to  see  that  one  cannot  adequately 
write  a  book  on  Womanhood  without  including,  in  it 
somewhere  a  statement  of  what  manhood  is  and  ought 
to  be.  Surely  one  of  our  duties  to  girlhood  is  to  teach 
it  the  elemental  truths  of  manhood.  Such  teaching 
must  recognize  the  facts  which  modern  psychology  per- 
ceives more  clearly  every  day,  and  it  must  combine 
that  knowledge  with  the  eternal  truths  of  morality, 
which  are  so  intensely  real  and  practical  in  the  great 
issues  of  life,  such  as  this.  The  great  fact  which 
/modern  psychology  has  discovered  is  that  intellect  is 
I  less  important,  and  emotion  more  important  than  we 
/.used  to  suppose;  that  knowledge,  as  we  lately  ob- 
served, is  non-moral,  and  may  be  for  good  or  for  evil; 
that  cleverness  is  merely  cleverness,  and  may  serve 
God  or  mammon;  that  it  is  the  nature  of  the  man  or 


On   Choosing  a  Husband  251 

the  woman  which  determines  the  influence  and  the  uses 
of  education.  A  girl  should  know  something  of  what 
I  have  elsewhere  called  the  transmutation  of  sex  as  it 
shows  itself  in  the  higher  as  distinguished  from  the 
lower  types  of  manhood:  she  should  know  that  it  is 
good  for  a  youth  to  spend  his  energy  in  visible  ways 
and  in  the  light  of  day;  there  is>the  less  likelihood  that 
it  is  being  spent  otherwise.  She  should  prefer  the 
man  who  is  visibly  active  and  who  keeps  his  mind  and 
body  moving;  she  should  know,  as  the  school  boy 
should  know,  that  the  capacity  to  smoke  and  drink 
really  proves  nothing  as  regards  manhood.  Doubt- 
less there  is  some  courage  required  in  learning  to 
smoke,  and  so  much,  but  it  is  not  much,  is  to  the  smok- 
er's credit;  but  for  the  rest,  smoking  and  drinking  are 
simply  forms  of  self-indulgence,  and  though  they  are 
doubtless  very  excusable  and  are  often  practised  by 
splendid  men,  they  are  of  no  virtue  in  themselves. 
Further,  they  are  open  to  the  fundamental  objection 
that  they  lessen  the  measure  of  a  man's  self-mastery. 
Women  should  set  a  high  standard  in  such  matters  as 
these. 

To  take  the  case  of  smoking,  very  few  smokers  real- 
ize, in  the  first  place,  how  much  money  they  expend. 
It  is  money  which,  if  not  spent,  would  appreciably  con- 
tribute to  the  cost  of  house-keeping  in  not  a  few  cases. 
Many  a  man  who  says  he  cannot  afford  to  marry 
spends  on  tobacco  and  alcohol  a  sum  quite  sufficient 
to  turn  the  scale.  It  will  be  argued  that  the  smoking 
brings  rest  and  peace,  that  it  soothes,  aids  digestion, 
and  so  forth.  But  the  non-smoker  is  not  in  need  of 


252  Woman  and  Womanhood 

these  assistances:  it  is  only  the  smoker  who  requires 
to  smoke  for  these  purposes.  On  this  point  I  have 
said,  in  the  volume  of  personal  hygiene  which  this 
present  work  is  meant  to  succeed,  all  that  really  re- 
quires to  be  said.  It  was  there  pointed  out  that  nico- 
tine doubtless  produces  secondary  products  in  the 
blood  which  require  a  further  dose  of  the  nicotine  as 
an  antidote  to  them.  Thus  there  is  initiated  a  vicious 
circle,  the  details  of  which  have  been  fully  worked  out 
in  the  case  of  opium,  or  rather,  morphia.  All  the 
good  results  which  are  obtained  from  smoking  are  es- 
sentially of  the  nature  of  neutralizing  the  secondary 
effects  of  previous  smoking.  Here,  then,  is  the  scien- 
tific argument  for  the  girl's  hand  if  she  proposes  to 
deal  with  her  lover  on  this  point. 

It  may  be  added  that  the  writer  can  now  quote  per- 
sonal experience  in  favour  of  his  advice.  He  smoked 
incessantly  for  fourteen  years — from  seventeen  to 
thirty-one — his  quantum  being  five  ounces  in  all  per 
week — of  the  strongest  Egyptian  cigarettes  and  the 
strongest  pipe  tobacco  procurable.  The  practice  did 
him  no  observable  harm  whatever.  When  he  wrote 
the  paragraph  on  "  How  to  control  one's  smoking," 
in  the  book  referred  to,  he  was  only  wishing  that  he 
could  control  his  own.  At  last  he  got  disgusted  with 
himself  and  stopped  altogether.  Personally  he  is 
neither  better  nor  worse,  but  he  is  buying  books  in 
proportion  to  the  money  formerly  wasted  on  to- 
bacco, and  perhaps  the  change  is  worth  while.  The 
girl  who  reads  this  book  may  tell  her  lover  with  con- 
fidence that  it  is  quite  possible  to  stop  smoking,  and 


On   Choosing  a  Hi4sband  253 

that  after  a  little  while  the  craving  wholly  disappears. 
If  he  has  been  a  really  confirmed,  systematic  smoker, 
he  may  have  a  very  uncomfortable  three  weeks  after 
he  stops,  but  soon  after  that  the  time  will  come  when 
he  can  stay  in  a  room  where  others  are  smoking  and 
not  even  desire  to  join  them,  which  he  could  never  have 
done  before.  He  will  have  the  advantage  that  he  is 
definitely  less  likely  to  die  of  cancer  of  the  mouth, 
more  especially  cancer  of  the  tongue.  That  is  a  point 
which  will  affect  his  wife  as  well  as  himself.  He  will 
save  a  quite  remarkable  sum  of  money,  and  since  ob- 
ject lessons  are  very  valuable,  he  may  follow  the  sug- 
gestion to  lay  it  out  in  the  form  of  books,  as  time  goes 
on,  though  perhaps  my  reader  can  give  him  better  ad- 
vice from  the  point  of  view  of  the  future  housekeeper. 
Of  course  there  is  the  point  of  view  expressed  in  a 
poem  of  Mr.  Kipling's : 

"  A  woman  is  only  a  woman, 
But  a  good  cigar  is  a  smoke." 

If  a  man  takes  that  point  of  view  he  is  not  good 
enough  for  a  woman,  I  think;  she  may  remember  Dog- 
berry, Take  no  note  of  him  but  let  him  go  ...  and 
thank  God  she  is  rid  of  a — fool. 

Certainly,  I  am  not  saying  anything  which  will  be 
grateful  to  all  ears,  but  while  we  are  at  it,  and  since 
this  book  is  written  in  the  interests  of  women,  I  must 
say  what  I  believe.  I  counsel  the  girl  to  stop  her 
lover's  smoking;  a  thousandfold  more  strongly  would 
I  counsel  her  to  stop  his  drinking.  In  a  former  vol- 
ume on  eugenics,  some  of  the  effects  of  parental  drink- 


254  Woman  and  Womanhood 

ing  have  been  dealt  with  at  length,  and  that  subject 
need  not  be  returned  to  here.  But  also  from  the  point 
of  view  of  the  individual,  a  girl  may  be  counselled  to 
stop  her  lover's  drinking.  An  excellent  eugenic  motto 
for  a  girl,  as  my  friend  Canon  Horsley  pointed  out  in 
discussing  my  paper  on  this  subject  read  before  the  So- 
ciety for  the  Study  of  Inebriety  in  1909,  is  "  the  lips 
that  touch  liquor  shall  never  touch  mine." 

There  are  always  plenty  of  people  to  sneer  at  the 
teetotaler;  people  who  make  money  out  of  drink  nat- 
urally do  so;  people  who  drink  themselves  naturally 
do  so;  the  unmarried  girl  may  do  so,  thinking  that  the 
teetotaler  is  a  prig  and  not  quite  a  man.  But  there  is 
one  great  class  of  the  community,  the  most  important 
of  all,  which  does  not  sneer  at  teetotalers,  and  that  is 
the  wives.  They  know  better,  nay,  they  know  best, 
and  their  verdict  stands  and  will  remain  against  that 
of  all  others.  I  am  now  addressing  the  girl  who  may 
become  a  wife,  and  I  tell  her  most  solemnly  that  from 
her  point  of  view  she  cannot  afford  to  laugh  at  the 
teetotaler;  and  if  she  can  stop  her  lover's  drinking, 
whether  he  drinks  much  or  little,  she  will  do  well  for 
him  and  herself.  She  should  know  what  the  effect  of 
alcohol  is  upon  a  man,  and  she  should  have  imagina- 
tion enough  to  realize  that  his  hot  breath,  coming  un- 
welcome, will  not  be  more  palatable  in  the  future  for 
its  flavouring  of  whisky.  It  may  be  admitted  that  in 
saying  all  this  the  interests  of  the  future  are  perhaps 
paramount  in  my  mind.  I  am  trying  to  do  a  service 
to  the  principle,  "  Protect  parenthood  from  alcohol," 
which  I  advocate  as  the  first  and  most  urgent  motto 


On  Choosing  a  Husband  255 

for  the  real  temperance  reformer.  Yet  the  question 
of  parenthood  may  be  entirely  left  out  of  considera- 
tion, and  even  so  the  advice  here  given  to  the  girl  about 
to  choose  a  husband — alas,  that  only  a  small  propor- 
tion of  maidenhood  can  be  in  that  fortunate  state, 
which  is  yet  the  right  and  natural  one ! — is  warranted 
and  more  than  warranted.  We  may  go  so  far  as  to 
declare  that  it  is  a  great  duty,  laid  upon  the  young 
womanhood  of  civilization,  to  protect  itself  and  the 
future,  and  to  serve  its  own  contemporary  manhood, 
by  taking  up  this  attitude  towards  alcohol.  Would 
that  this  great  missionary  enterprise  were  now  unani- 
mously undertaken  by  these  most  effective  and  cogent 
of  missionaries,  whose  own  happiness  so  largely  de- 
pends upon  its  success ! 

Of  course  it  should  not  be  necessary  for  any  man 
to  set  forth,  for  the  instruction  of  girlhood,  the  quali- 
ties which  it  should  value  in  men.  All  who  train  and 
teach  girlhood  and  form  its  ideals  should  devote  them- 
selves scarcely  less  to  this  than  to  the  inculcation  of 
high  ideals  for  girlhood  itself;  yet  it  is  not  done.  We 
do  not  yet  recognize  the  supreme  importance  of  the 
marriage  choice  for  the  present  and  for  the  future. 

Fortunately,  if  Nature  alone  gets  a  fair  chance,  she 
teaches  the  girl  that  a  man  should  "  play  the  game," 
and  should  not  be  afraid  of  "  having  a  go,"  that  of  the 
two  classes  into  which,  as  one  used  to  tell  a  little  girl, 
people  are  divided — those  who  "  stick  to  it,"  and  those 
who  do  not — the  former  are  the  worthy  for  her.  But 
Nature  is  specially  handicapped  by  stupid  convention, 
not  least  in  Anglo-Saxon  countries,  as  regards  a 


256  Woman  and  Womanhood 

woman's  estimation  of  tenderness  in  a  man.  The 
parental  instinct  with  its  correlate  emotion  of  tender- 
ness, is  the  highest  of  existing  things,  and  though  it  is 
less  characteristic  of  men  than  of  women,  it  is  none  the 
less  supreme  when  men  exhibit  it.  In  days  to  come, 
when  women  can  choose,  as  they  should  b*  able  to 
choose  to-day,  they  may  well  be  counselled  to  use  as  a 
touchstone  of  their  suitor's  quality  that  line  of  Word- 
worth,  "  Wisdom  doth  live  with  children  round  her 
knees."  A  man  who  thinks  that  "  rot  "  is  rot,  or 
soon  will  be. 

But  in  the  minds  of  men  and  women  there  is  a  half 
implicit  assumption  that  tenderness  is  incompatible 
with  manliness.  "  Let  not  women's  weapons,  water- 
drops,  stain  my  man's  cheeks,"  says  Lear.  But  it  is 
quite  possible  for  a  man  to  be  manly  and  yet  tender, 
and  to  the  highest  type  of  women  it  is  the  combination 
of  strength  and  tenderness  in  a  man  that  appeals  be- 
yond aught  else. 

It  has  always  seemed  to  the  present  writer  that  the 
followers  of  Christ  have  done  him  far  less  than  jus- 
tice in  insisting  upon  one  aspect  of  his  character  dis- 
proportionately with  another.  They  speak  of  him  as 
the  "  Gentle  Jesus,  meek  and  mild  ";  they  tend  to  de- 
scribe him  as  almost  or  wholly  effeminate;  and  the 
representations  of  him  in  art,  with  small,  feminine  and 
conspicuously  un-Jewish  features,  with  long  feminine 
hair  and  the  hands  of  a  consumptive  woman,  join 
with  sacred  poetry  in  furthering  this  impression. 
Nothing  can  be  truer  than  that  he  was  tender,  and 
that  he  had  a  passion  for  childhood  and  realized,  a§ 


On  Choosing  a  Husband  257 

we  may  dare  to  say,  its  divinity,  as  only  the  very  few 
in  any  age  have  done.  But  this  "  Gentle  Jesus,  meek 
and  mild,"  was  also  he  whose  blazing  words  against 
established  iniquity  and  hypocrisy  constitute  him  the 
supreme  exemplar  not  only  of  love  but  of  moral  in- 
dignation, and  of  a  sublime  invective  which  has  been 
equalled  not  even  by  Dante  at  his  ^highest.  We  for- 
get, perhaps,  when  we  use  such  a  phrase  as  "  whited 
sepulchre,"  that  we  are  quoting  the  untamable  fierce- 
ness, the  courage,  fatal  and  vital,  of  the  "  Gentle 
Jesus,  meek  and  mild,"  who  was  murdered  not  for 
loving  children,  but  for  hating  established  wickedness. 
Why  have  Christians  not  recognized  that  it  is  this  per- 
haps unexampled  combination  of  strength  and  tender- 
ness which  makes  their  Founder  worthy  for  all  time 
to  be  regarded  as  the  Highest  of  Mankind? 

One  more  counsel  to  the  girl  who  can  choose.  It 
is  contained  in  the  saying  of  Marcus  Aurelius  that  the 
worth  of  a  man  may  be  measured  by  the  worth  of  the 
things  to  which  he  devotes  his  life. 

We  must  now  pass  to  consider  the  sociological  fact 
that,  under  present  conditions,  the  sole  use  of  this 
chapter  for  a  very  large  proportion  of  women  can 
merely  consist  in  suggesting  to  them  that  they  are  bet- 
ter unmarried  than  married  without  love.  It  is  not 
possible  for  them  to  exercise  the  great  function  of 
choice  which  is  theirs  by  natural  right.  Evil  and 
ominous  of  more  evil  are  whatever  facts  deprive 
woman  of  this  her  birthright. 


CHAPTER   XVII 

THE  CONDITIONS  OF  MARRIAGE 

IN  my  volume  introductory  to  Eugenics  I  have 
dealt  at  length  with  marriage  from  that  point  of  view. 
Here  our  concern  is  with  the  individual  woman,  and 
though  neither  in  theory  nor  in  practice  can  we  en- 
tirely dissociate  the  question  of  the  future  from  that 
of  the  individual's  needs,  it  is  necessary  here  to  dis- 
cuss the  present  conditions  of  marriage  in  the  civilized 
world,  from  the  woman's  point  of  view.  We  have 
to  ask  ourselves  how  these  conditions  act  in  selecting 
women  from  the  ranks  of  the  unmarried;  whether  the 
transition  proceeds  from  random  chance,  or  whether 
there  is  a  selection  in  certain  definite  directions,  and 
if  so,  what  directions?  We  have  to  ask  whether  dif- 
ferent women  would  pass  into  the  ranks  of  the  mar- 
ried if  the  conditions  of  marriage  were  other  than  they 
are;  and  we  shall  assuredly  arrive  at  the  principle  that 
whatever  changes  are  necessary  in  the  conditions  of 
marriage,  so  that  the  best  women  shall  become  the 
mothers  of  the  future,  must  be  and  will  be  effected. 

One  has  elsewhere  argued  at  length  that  monogamy 
is  the  marriage  form  which  has  prevailed  and  will  be 
maintained  because  of  its  superior  survival-value — 
in  other  words,  because  it  best  serves  the  interests  of 

258 


The  Conditions  of  Marriage  259 

the  future.  But  what  of  the  individual  in  a  country 
where  there  are  thirteen  hundred  thousand  adult 
women  in  excess  of  men,  which  is  the  case  of  Great 
Britain?  Plainly,  there  is  need  for  very  serious  criti- 
cism of  such  an  institution  in  such  circumstances.  Let 
the  reader  briefly  be  reminded,  then,  that,  as  I  have 
previously  argued,  Nature  makes  no  arrangement  for 
such  a  disproportion  between  the  sexes.*  More  boys 
than  girls  are  indeed  born,  but  from  our  infantile  mor- 
tality, which  is  largely  a  male  infanticide,  onwards, 
morbid  influences  are  at  work  which  result  in  the  dis- 
proportion already  named. 

Two  excellent  reasons  may  be  adduced  why  any  dis- 
proportion in  the  numbers  of  the  sexes  should  be  the 
opposite  of  that  which  now  obtains.  The  ideal  con- 
dition, no  doubt,  is  that  of  numerical  equality.  Fail- 
ing that,  the  evils  of  a  male  preponderance,  though 
very  real,  are  comparatively  small.  For  one  thing, 
celibacy  affects  a  woman  more  than  a  man:  men,  on 
the  whole,  suffer  less  from  being  unmarried.  It  is  a 
more  serious  deprivation  for  the  woman  than  for  the 
man,  in  general,  to  be  debarred  from  parenthood. 
This  is  a  proposition  which  we  need  not  labour  here, 
for  no  reader  will  dispute  its  importance  and  its  rele- 
vance. 

No  less  important  is  the  economic  question.  Spe- 
cially consecrated  as  she  is  to  the  future,  woman  as  dis- 
tinctive woman  is  necessarily  handicapped  in  relation 
to  the  present.  She  is  at  an  economic  disadvantage. 
One's  blood  boils  at  the  cruel  effrontery  of  men  who 
protest  against  women's  efforts  to  gain  an  honest  liv- 


260  Woman  and  Womanhood 

ing,  but  who  have  never  a  word  or  a  deed  against  pros- 
titution or  against  the  causes  which  produce  the  nu- 
merical preponderance  of  women.  But  here  again 
our  proposition,  though  unfamiliar,  and  indeed  so  far 
as  I  know  never  yet  stated,  needs  no  labouring — that 
owing  to  the  economic  opportunities  of  the  sexes,  it  is, 
at  any  rate,  on  that  ground,  of  no  significance  that  men 
shall  be  in  excess  in  a  community,  but  it  is  of  very 
grave  significance  that  women  shall  be  in  excess.  It 
is  pitiable,  and  indeed  revolting,  in  this  country  where 
the  excess  of  women  is  so  marked,  to  hear  from  year 
to  year  the  comments  of  men  upon  the  supposed  de- 
generation of  women,  upon  their  unnatural  selfishness, 
their  desire  to  invade  spheres  which  do  not  belong  to 
them,  and  so  forth  and  so  forth  ad  nauseam;  whilst 
these  commentators  are  themselves  hand  in  hand  with 
drink,  with  war  and  with  Mammon,  destroying  male 
children  of  all  ages  in  disproportionate  excess,  send- 
ing our  manhood  to  be  slain  in  war,  and  sending  it  also 
in  the  cause  of  industry — that  is  to  say,  in  the  cause 
of  gold — to  our  colonies,  as  if  the  culture  of  the  racial 
life  were  not  the  vital  industry  of  any  people. 

A  third  very  important  reason  why  a  numerical  pre- 
ponderance of  women  is  more  injurious  to  a  country 
than  a  numerical  preponderance  of  men  is  that,  though 
the  duty  and  responsibility  of  selection  for  parenthood 
devolves  upon  both  sexes,  it  is  normally  discharged 
with  greater  efficiency  by  women  than  by  men;  and  a 
numerical  preponderance  of  women  gravely  interferes 
with  their  performance  of  this  great  function.  It 
may  obviously  be  argued  that  such  a  preponderance 


The  Conditions  of  Marriage  261 

leaves  a  greater  choice  to  the  men.  But  I  believe  that 
men  do  not  exercise  their  choice  so  well.  In  a  word, 
women  are  more  fastidious;  the  racial  instinct  is 
weaker  in  them,  less  rampant  and  less  roving.  In  the 
exercise  of  this  function  women  are  therefore,  on  the 
whole,  naturally  more  capable,  more  responsible,  less 
liable  to  be  turned  aside  by  the  demands  of-the  mo- 
ment. In  his  "  Pure  Sociology,"  Professor  Lester 
Ward  has  very  clearly  and  forcibly  discussed  the  com- 
parative behaviour  of  the  two  sexes  in  this  matter,  and 
he  shows  howthegreat  feminine  sentiment, not  confined 
merely  to  the  human  species,  is  to  choose  the  best.  The 
principle  is  also  a  factor  in  masculine  action,  but  much 
less  markedly  so.  What  we  call,  then,  the  greater 
fastidiousness  of  the  female  sex  is  a  definite  sex  char- 
acter, and  has  a  definite  racial  value,  raising  the  stand- 
ard of  fatherhood  where  it  is  allowed  free  play.  But 
in  a  nation  which  contains  a  great  excess  of  women, 
under  economic  conditions  which  are  greatly  to  their 
disadvantage,  the  value  of  this  natural  fastidiousness 
is  practically  lost.  Such  are  the  conditions  in  Great 
Britain  at  present  that  practically  any  man,  of  how- 
ever low  a  type,  however  diseased,  however  unworthy 
for  parenthood,  may  become  a  father,  if  he  pleases. 

The  natural  condition  suitable  to  monogamy  being 
a  numerical  equality  of  the  sexes,  the  suggestion  may 
obviously  be  made  that  where  there  is  a  great  excess  of 
women,  monogamy  should  yield  to  polygamy;  and  in- 
deed where  there  is  such  excess  monogamy  is  more 
apparent  than  real — an  ideal  rather  than  a  practice. 
Thus  we  have  one  or  two  modern  authors  who  have 


262  Woman  and  Womanhood 

installed  themselves  in  sociology  by  the  royal  road  of 
romance — though  even  to  this  branch  of  learning,  as 
to  mathematics,  there  is  no  short  cut  whatsoever,  even 
for  those  whose  pens  are  naturally  skilful — authors 
who  tell  us  that,  given  this  numerical  preponderance 
of  women,  some  kind  of  polygamous  modification  of 
the  present  marriage  system  should  certainly  be 
adopted.  To  one  aspect  of  this  contention  we  shall 
later  return.  Meanwhile,  the  answer  is  that,  rather 
than  abolish  monogamy,  we  should  strive  to  alter  the 
conditions  which  produce  such  an  excess  of  women. 
If  such  an  aim  were  necessarily  impracticable,  we 
might  well  feel  inclined  to  vote  for  polygamy  rather 
than  the  present  state  of  things.  It  is  a  very  decent 
alternative  to  prostitution.  But  in  point  of  fact  our 
aim  of  equalizing  the  numbers  of  the  sexes,  which  I  as- 
sert as  a  canon  of  fundamental  politics,  is  eminently 
practicable;  and  here  we  may  briefly  outline,  as  very 
relevant  to  the  problems  of  womanhood,  the  methods 
by  which  that  aim  is  to  be  realized  for  the  good  of 
both  sexes  in  the  present  and  the  future. 

Nature  gives  us  more  than  a  fair  start,  almost  as 
if  she  knew  that  the  wastage  of  male  life  is  apt  to  be 
higher  at  all  ages  even  under  the  best  conditions.  She 
sends  more  male  children  into  the  world,  as  if  to  se- 
cure, on  the  whole,  an  equality  of  the  sexes  in  adult 
life.  That  ideal  is  realizable,  even  allowing  for  a  con- 
siderable excess  of  male  deaths.  One  of  our  duties, 
then,  is  to  control  that  part  of  the  male  death-rate, 
if  any,  which  is  controllable.  To  begin  at  the  be- 
ginning, we  find  that  infant  mortality  claims  our  atten- 


The  Conditions  of  Marriage  263 

tion  at  once.  For  years  past  in  the  campaign  against 
infant  mortality  I  have  urged  this  as  an  apparently 
somewhat  remote,  yet  very  real  and  important  issue. 
Infant  mortality  bears  heaviest  upon  male  babies.  It 
is  largely,  as  I  have  so  often  said,  a  male  infanticide, 
notably  contrasting  with  the  practice  of  deliberate  fe- 
male infanticide  which  is  known  in  so  many  times  and 
places.  In  lowering  the  infant  mortality  we  shall  re- 
duce this  disproportion  of  male  deaths,  and  shall  make 
for  the  survival  of  a  larger  number  of  men.  Bring 
down  the  infant  mortality  to  proper  limits  and  we  shall 
have  in  adult  life  possible  male  partners  for  a  large 
number  of  women  who  are  now  without  such  because 
of  the  male  infanticide  of  twenty  and  thirty  years  ago. 
It  is  characteristic  of  the  fashion  in  which  the  sur- 
face gains  our  attention  while  the  substance  evades  it, 
that  the  question  of  the  disproportion  of  the  sexes 
should  have  been  brought  to  the  public  notice  in  regard 
to  a  subject  which, though  not  unimportant,  is  quite  sec- 
ondary compared  with  those  which  we  are  now  dis- 
cussing. Only  three  or  four  years  ago  people  were 
startled  and  incredulous  when  one  told  them  by  the 
pen  or  in  lectures  that  there  was  a  very  great  excess  of 
women  in  these  islands.  Nowadays  everybody  knows 
it.  This  is  not  because  people  have  suddenly  come  to 
realize  the  fundamental  importance  for  the  State  of 
such  matters,  but  simply  because  the  fact  provides 
an  argument  regarding  Woman  Suffrage.  This  im- 
mensely important  fact  of  female  preponderance, 
with  its  gigantic  consequences,  which  affect  every  as- 
pect of  the  national  life,  was  totally  ignored  by  the 


264  Woman  and  Womanhood 

public  until,  forsooth,  it  became  an  argument  against 
Woman  Suffrage;  and  then  the  foolish  people  whose 
voices  are  allowed  to  be  heard  on  these  complicated 
matters,  but  who  would  be  laughed  out  of  court  if  they 
expressed  their  opinions  on  other  subjects  equally  out- 
side their  competence,  told  us  that  woman's  suffrage 
would  mean  government  by  women,  they  being  in  the 
majority.  For  all  other  consequences  of  this  gigantic 
fact  they  have  no  concern;  not  even  the  mental  ca- 
pacity to  grasp  that  it  must  have  consequences.  But 
this,  which  happens  not  to  be  a  consequence  of  it,  they 
are  loud  to  insist  upon.  At  any  rate,  they  have  done 
this  service  until  the  public  at  last  is  acquainted  with 
the  demographic  fact;  and  one  of  the  suffragist  lead- 
ers some  time  ago  publicly  expressed  an  old  argument 
of  the  present  writer's  that  in  point  of  fact  this  grave 
supposed  consequence  of  woman's  suffrage  need  not 
be  feared  if  only  for  the  reason  that  Woman  Suffrage 
would  certainly  mean  increased  attention  to  infant 
mortality,  and  therefore  increased  control  of  the  mor- 
bid causes  which  at  present  account  for  female  pre- 
ponderance. 

It  might  indeed  be  added  also  that,  in  so  far  as 
Woman  Suffrage  operated  against  war,  it  would  con- 
tribute in  another  way  to  the  correction  of  this  nu- 
merical disparity.  Not  the  least  of  the  many  evils 
which  have  flowed  from  the  last  hideous  war  in  which 
Great  Britain  engaged — evils  which  glass-eyed  politi- 
cians have  since  been  exploiting  in  the  interests  of  their 
own  charlatanry — is  the  loss  to  scores  of  thousands 
of  women  in  this  country  of  the  complemental  man- 
hood which  was  destroyed  by  wounds  and  more  es- 


The  Conditions  of  Marriage  265 

pecially  by  disease  in  South  Africa.  The  wickedness 
with  which  that  war  was  entered  upon,  and  the  crimi- 
nal ignorance  with  which  it  was  mismanaged,  and  the 
elementary  principles  of  hygiene  defied,  have  their  con- 
sequences to-day  in  much  of  the  unmated  and  handi- 
capped womanhood  of  Great  Britain.  It  may  be 
noted  that  polygamy  as  a  historical  phenomenon  has 
commonly  and  necessarily  been  associated  with  mili- 
tarism. Large  destruction  of  manhood  by  war  leads 
to  a  numerical  excess  of  women,  and  polygamy  is  a 
consequence.  If  the  consequences  in  our  modern  civ- 
ilization are  less  decent  than  polygamy,  which  would 
affront  the  beautiful  minds  that  are  unconcerned  for 
Regent  Street,  surely  our  duty  is  more  strenuously  than 
ever  to  combat  the  causes  which,  as  we  see,  are  quite 
definitely  traceable  and  controllable. 

The  increased  attention  paid  to  the  conditions  of 
child  life  is  of  direct  service  to  the  nation,  and  to 
womanhood  in  especial,  by  tending  to  interfere  with 
the  excessive  and  unnecessary  mortality  of  boys.  As 
we  have  elsewhere  observed,  the  male  organism  has 
less  vitality  than  the  female  organism.  When  both 
sexes  at  any  age  are  subjected  to  the  same  injurious 
influences,  more  males  than  females  die.  Thus  all  our 
work  with  such  a  measure  as  the  Children  Act,  keep- 
ing children  out  of  public-houses,  and  so  forth,  directly 
serves  the  womanhood  of  the  not  distant  future  by 
preserving  a  certain  amount  of  manhood  to  keep  it 
company.  Accepting  the  truth  of  the  dictum  that  it 
is  not  good  for  man  to  be  alone,  we  have  to  learn  the 
still  more  general  and  profound  truth  that  it  is  not 
good  for  woman  to  be  alone,  and,  as  we  now  learn,  the 


266  Woman  and  Womanhood 

modern  movement  for  the  care  of  childhood  has  this 
notable  consequence,  which  I  have  been  pointing  out 
for  many  years  and  now  insist  upon  once  again,  that 
it  makes  for  the  greater  numerical  equality  of  the 
sexes  in  adult  life,  and  therefore  for  the  relief  of  the 
many  evils  near  and  remote  which  flow  from  the  nu- 
merical excess  of  women.  Answering  the  question, 
'  Whither  are  we  tending?  "  in  Christmas,  1909,  Mr. 
G.  K.  Chesterton  referred  to  our  liability  to  "  float 
feebly  towards  every  sociological  fad  or  novelty  until 
we  believe  in  some  plain,  cold,  crude  insanity,  such  as 
keeping  children  out  of  public-houses."  *  Consider- 
ing the  authority,  I  think  this  is  fairly  good  testimony 
toward  the  wisdom  of  the  achievement  to  which  some 
of  us  devoted  the  greater  part  of  three  strenuous 
years;  and  if  the  question  is  to  be  asked  "  whither  are 
we  tending,"  part  of  the  answer  will  be  that  by  such 
measures  as  this  for  the  care  of  child  life,  which  means 
in  practice  especially  for  the  keeping  alive  of  boys,  we 
are  tending  toward  the  correction  of  one  of  the  grav- 
est, though  least  recognized,  evils  of  the  present  day. 

Our  business  in  the  present  volume  is  not  with  child- 
hood. It  is  not  possible  to  go  fully  into  the  statistical 
details  of  the  comparative  death-rate  of  the  sexes,  but 
the  data  can  readily  be  obtained  by  any  interested 
reader.f 

It  may  be  argued  that  the  questions  now  under  con- 

*  "  T.  P.'s  Weekly,"  Christmas  Number,  1909. 

f  The  first  treatise  on  Infant  Mortality  in  English,  written  by  Sir  George  Newman 
at  the  present  writer's  request,  and  published  in  his  New  Library  of  Medicine  in  1906, 
gives  abundant  and  trustworthy  information  as  to  the  initial  incidence  of  this  dispropor- 
tionate mortality. 


The  Conditions  of  Marriage  267 

sideration  are  foreign  to  a  chapter  entitled  "  The  Con- 
ditions of  Marriage,"  but  the  excess  of  women  in  a 
community  is  one  of  the  most  fundamental  conditions 
of  marriage  therein,  and  the  question  is  not  the  less 
necessary  to  be  dealt  with  because,  so  far  as  one  can  as- 
certain, its  consequences  have  escaped  the  notice  of 
previous  students. 

Having  dealt  with  the  waste  of  male  life  in  infancy, 
in  childhood  and  in  war,  we  must  pass  on  to  a  totally 
different  factor  of  our  problem,  and  that  is  the  emigra- 
tion to  our  colonies  and  elsewhere  of  a  greatly  dispro- 
portionate number  of  men.  One  does  not  assert  for  a 
moment  that  the  men  should  not  go,  but  merely  that  if 
they  do,  so  should  women  also.  As  everyone  knows 
they  go  for  many  reasons  and  purposes.  These  are 
largely  industrial  and  imperial.  The  Civil  Service 
claims  a  large  number.  These  bachelors  go  in  the 
cause  of  Empire,  whether  as  actual  servants  of  the 
State  or  in  the  interests  of  commerce.  They  are 
largely  picked  men,  capable  of  discipline  and  initiative 
and  of  withstanding  hardships;  and  also  in  large  de- 
gree intellectually  able.  It  is  certainly  not  good  for 
them  to  be  alone,  and  it  is  worse  for  the  women  whom 
they  leave  behind.  All  this  may  seem  right  and  the 
only  practicable  thing  for  the  day,  but  it  is  fundamen- 
tally wrong  because  it  is  wrong  for  the  morrow. 

If  other  needs  were  not  so  pressing,  one  might  well 
devote  an  entire  volume,  not  inappropriately  in  these 
days  of  fiscal  controversy,  to  the  question  of  vital  im- 
ports and  exports.  Year  after  year  passes,  and  poli- 
ticians in  Great  Britain  grow  more  and  more  voracious 


268  Woman  and  Womanhood 

and,  if  possible,  less  and  less  veracious  on  the  subject 
of  what  they  misunderstand  by  imports  and  exports. 
The  subject  is  really  one  for  knowledge,  not  for  poli- 
ticians. With  great  ceremony  at  intervals,  they  go 
through  the  highly  superfluous  performance  of  calling 
each  other  liars,  as  who  should  say  that  Queen  Anne  is 
dead:  and  while  this  tragical  farce  continues  the  ques- 
tion of  vital  imports  and  exports  is  ignored.  Within 
it  there  lies  the  key  to  the  Irish  question,  for  instance, 
since  no  nation  can  be  saved  which  persistently  exports 
the  best  of  ifs  life.  And  in  this  question  also  lies  the 
key  to  a  great  part  of  the  woman  question  and  to  a 
great  part  of  the  colonial  question.  Politicians  who 
have  not  even  discovered  yet  that  trade  is  a  process 
of  exchange,  and  who  assume  that  in  every  bargain 
someone  is  being  worsted,  pay  no  heed  to  the  ques- 
tions what  sort  of  people  leave  our  shores,  and  what 
sort  of  people  enter  them.  Or  rather,  as  if  in  order 
to  emphasize  their  blindness  to  fundamentals,  they 
make  a  point  about  passing  an  act  against  alien  immi- 
gration, which  merely  serves  to  throw  into  prominence 
our  national  neglect  of  this  great  issue.  This  is  not 
the  time  and  the  place  in  which  I  can  deal  with  it  in  its 
entirety,  but  it  must  be  referred  to  in  so  far  as  it  bears 
on  the  proportion  of  the  sexes.  Toward  the  end  of 
1909  there  was  a  long  correspondence  in  the  Times 
on  the  subject  of  "  Unmarried  Daughters."  One  may 
print  in  the  text  the  admirable  letter  in  which  a  finger 
is  put  upon  the  heart  of  the  question.  We  are  told 
about  the  incompetence  of  women  to  deal  with  national 
affairs,  but  here  we  find  a  woman  writing  to  the  Times 


The  Conditions  of  Marriage  269 

on  a  fundamental  matter  for  the  Imperialist,  though 
no  member  of  our  Houses  of  Parliament  has  yet  given 
any  attention  to  it. 

SIR:  Only  two  of  your  numerous  correspondents  on  this 
subject  have  really  reached  the  root  of  the  matter. 

For  more  than  thirty  years  the  young  men  of  the  British 
Isles  have  found  it  increasingly  difficult  to  make  a  living  in 
their  native  land.  Therefore  there  has  been — and  still  is — 
a  steady  exodus  of  our  male  population  to  our  Colonies,  where 
they  are  unhampered  by  the  many  disadvantages  prevailing 
here.  Unfortunately  they  are  obliged  to  leave  the  corre- 
sponding proportion  of  women  behind.  The  result  is  a  sur- 
plus of  1,000,000  women  in  Great  Britain;  but  let  me  hasten 
to  add  (lest  the  mistake  be  laid  upon  Nature  when  it  is  not 
hers)  that  there  is  a  proportionate  shortage  of  1,000,000 
women  in  our  colonies.  I  have  recently  been  a  tour  through- 
out Canada  and  the  States,  and  was  most  struck  by  the  scar- 
city of  women  in  Western  Canada — there  are  about  eight  men 
to  one  woman.  And  in  America  the  saddest  sight  of  all  is 
the  appalling  number  of  half-castes,  a  blot  on  the  civilization 
of  the  States,  but  a  blot  for  which  Europeans  are  responsi- 
ble. The  absence  of  white  women  is  answerable  for  the  worst 
type  of  population,  so  that  in  reality  this  is  a  very  pressing 
Imperial  question;  and  all  those  interested  in  the  growth  and 
future  of  Canada  should  turn  their  attention  to  it.  For,  un- 
less we  can  induce  the  right  sort  of  British  women  to  emigrate 
we  shall  not  have  the  Colonies  peopled  with  our  own  race  or 
speaking  our  own  mother  tongue. 

Canada  wants  unmarried  women,  her  cry  is  for  our  mar- 
riageable daughters,  and  each  one  would  find  her  vocation  out 
there. 

Canadian  men  are  one  of  the  finest  types  of  manhood  pos- 
sible, but  they  are  too  hard  working  to  be  able  to  return  here 


270  Woman  and  Womanhood 

in  search  of  a  wife.  How  gladly  they  would  welcome  the 
possibility  of  sharing  their  homes  with  a  sister  or  a  wife  can 
only  be  guessed  by  those  who  have  been  there. 

I  am  so  greatly  impressed  with  the  advisability  of  encour- 
aging English  women  to  go  out  there  that  I  strongly  urge 
every  suitable,  healthy,  and  useful  woman  between  the  age  of 
twenty-five  and  thirty-five  to  depart  (if  she  has  nothing  to 
prevent  her),  and,  through  the  British  Emigration  Society, 
Imperial  Institute,  I  shall  hope  to  do  all  that  I  can  to  assist 
them  financially. 

I  am,  sir, 

Yours  faithfully, 

SOPHIE  K.  BEVAN. 

(Times,  Dec.  24,  1909-) 

It  was  of  interest  for  the  student  of  opinion  and 
practice  to  compare  this  letter  with  another  which  ap- 
peared in  the  Times  within  a  few  days  of  it.  This 
was  an  official  letter  from  another  Emigration  Society 
and  advocated  the  object,  worthy  in  itself,  of  sending 
boys  to  Australasia.  The  letter  ended  with  the  fol- 
lowing assertion  regarding  such  boys :  "  They  are  the 
pioneers  of  Empire,  they  will  be  the  founders  of  na- 
tions to  come." 

But  the  point  exactly  is  that  at  present  the  nations 
to  come  in  our  Colonies  are  not  coming:  much  more 
likely  as  nations  to  come  in  Australasia,  as  things  go 
at  present,  are  the  Chinese  and  Japanese.  Before  na- 
tions can  be  founded,  the  co-operation  of  women  is  in- 
dispensable. We  complain  of  the  birth-rate  in  our 
Colonies,  or  at  least  those  few  persons  do  who  know- 
that  parenthood  is  the  key  to  national  destiny.  But 


The  Conditions  of  Marriage  2J1 

we  should  complain  of  our  own  folly  in  so  interfering 
with  the  natural  balance  of  the  sexes  as  to  create  press- 
ing problems,  wholly  insoluble,  alike  at  home  and  in 
our  Colonies.  At  all  times  "  England  wants  men," 
but  wherever  it  wants  men  it  wants  women, — even  in 
war  we  are  now  beginning  to  realize  the  importance  of 
the  trained  nurse.  There  can  be  no  future  for  our 
Colonies  if  they  are  to  be  inhabited  by  a  bachelor  gen- 
eration, and  the  excess  of  women  at  home  prejudices 
the  stability  of  the  heart  of  empire.  Either  we  must 
cease  exporting  our  boys  and  young  manhood — which 
I  certainly  do  not  advocate — or  our  girlhood  must  go 
also — which  I  certainly  do  advocate.  This  is  only  one 
aspect  of  the  question  of  vital  imports  and  exports, 
upon  which  a  book  of  vital  importance  for  any  nation, 
and  above  all,  for  England,  might  well  be  written. 

Once  again  let  us  remind  ourselves  how  cogently 
this  question  concerns  the  conditions  of  marriage.  It 
means  that  the  conditions  are  now  such  that  in  our 
Colonies  a  woman  can  exercise  her  rightful  function 
of  choosing  the  best  man  to  be  her  husband  and  a 
father  of  the  future,  while  at  home  this  is  possible  only 
for  the  very  few,  and  for  vast  numbers  marriage  is 
wholly  impossible.  I  return,  then,  to  the  original 
proposition:  are  we  to  follow  the  advice  of  our  gay, 
irresponsible  sociologists  so-called,  who  advise  us  to 
abolish  monogamy  in  the  circumstances,  or  are  we  to 
alter  the  alterable  conditions  which  so  disastrously 
prejudice  and  complicate  that  great  institution  in  the 
heart  of  our  empire  to-day?  Surely  there  can  be  but 
one  answer  to  this  question  when  we  realize  that  all 


272  Woman  and  Womanhood 

the  causes  of  the  present  disproportion  between  the 
sexes  at  home — causes  such  as  infant  mortality,  child 
mortality,  war,  and  the  exportation  of  one  sex  in  great 
excess  to  the  Colonies — are  evil  in  themselves  quite 
apart  from  their  influence  upon  the  practice  of  monog- 
amy. Unfortunately,  it  is  a  modern  custom  in  this 
age  of  transition  for  clever  people  to  criticize  on  ab- 
stract, patriotic,  sociological,  quasi-ethical,  and  such 
like  grounds,  institutions  and  practices  which  irk  them 
personally.  Unfortunately,  also,  sociology  is  in  the 
position,  at  present  and  yet  for  a  little  while  inevitable, 
of  shall  we  say  medicine  in  its  earliest  stages,  when 
anyone  may  be  accepted  as  qualified  who  simply  asserts 
that  he  is.  Lastly,  sociology  is  the  most  complicated 
of  all  the  sciences  because  the  chain  of  causation  is 
longer;  and  very  few  of  those  who  write  or  read  about 
it  have  the  patience  to  go  back  through  psychology  to 
biology  and  the  laws  of  life  in  their  analyses.  An  in- 
stitution like  marriage  is  criticized  by  those  who  think 
that  it  is  an  ecclesiastical  invention  of  yesterday,  and 
that  what  hands  have  made,  hands  can  destroy,  though 
marriage  is  aeons  older  even  than  the  mammalian 
order.  They  take  transient,  artificial  conditions,  last- 
ing not  for  a  second  in  the  history  of  mankind  seen 
as  a  whole,  and  simply  accepting  these  conditions  as 
part  of  the  order  of  nature,  they  ask  us  to  overthrow 
an  institution  which  is  immeasurable  ages  older  than 
man  himself.  The  odds  are  somewhat  against  them, 
one  may  surmise,  but  they  may  do  considerable  injury 
to  their  own  age  notwithstanding. 

After  having  dealt  with  this  fundamental  biological 


The  Conditions  of  Marriage  273 

condition  of  marriage,  we  must  next  turn  to  a  psycho- 
logical question  which  is  scarcely  less  important.  The 
human  being  is  immensely  complex  both  in  composi- 
tion and  in  needs,  and  the  institution  of  monogamy 
does  not  become  easier  of  maintenance  as  human  com- 
plexity increases.  Amongst  the  lower  animals  or  even 
amongst  the  lower  races  of  mankind,  the  relations  be- 
tween the  sexes  are  mostly  confined  to  one  sphere,  but 
amongst  ourselves  the  problem  is  to  mate  for  life  com- 
plex individuals  whose  needs  are  many,  ranging  from 
the  purely  physical  to  the  purely  psychical.  Thus  it 
is  a  matter  of  common  experience  that  whilst  one 
woman  meets  one  part  of  a  man's  needs,  another  meets 
another,  and  this  of  course  with  grave  prejudice  to  mo- 
nogamy. Some  of  the  modern  writers  to  whom  allu- 
sion has  been  made  suggest  that  these  different  needs 
want  sorting  out;  that  one  woman  is  to  be  the  intellec- 
tual companion  of  a  man,  and  another  the  mother  of 
his  children.  But  though  men  and  women  are  multi- 
ple and  complex,  they  are  in  the  last  resort  unities. 
These  absolute  distinctions  between  one  need  and  an- 
other do  not  work  out  in  practice.  Anything  which 
tends  toward  splitting  up  the  human  personality  must 
be  a  disservice  to  it.  Nor  do  we  desire  that  women 
of  the  higher  type,  best  fitted  to  be  the  intellectual  com- 
panions of  men,  shall  be  those  who  do  not  contribute  to 
the  future  of  the  race.  From  the  eugenic  point  of  view 
the  mother  is  every  whit  as  important  as  the  father. 
I  do  not  believe  for  a  moment  that  these  more  or  less 
definite  proposals  of  Mr.  Shaw  and  Mr.  Wells  are 
soundly  based,  and  perhaps  indeed  it  is  not  necessary 


274  Woman  and  Womanhood 

to  argue  against  them  at  greater  length.  Of  more 
value  is  it  to  ask  ourselves  whether  feminine  nature 
may  not  prove  itself  quite  equal  to  the  task  of  meeting 
all  the  needs  of  masculine  nature. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  right  answer,  in  many  cases 
at  any  rate,  to  the  wife's  question,  how  is  she  to  retain 
the  whole  of  her  husband's  interest,  is  hinted  at  in  Mr. 
Somerset  Maugham's  recent  play  "  Penelope  " — she 
must  be  many  women  to  him  herself.  And  this  the 
wise  and  happy  woman  is,  though  I  do  not  think  the 
phrase  "  many  women  "  at  all  covers  the  variety  of 
feeling  to  which  the  ideal  woman  can  appeal. 

The  ideal  love  is  that  in  which  the  whole  nature  is 
joined,  in  all  its  parts,  upon  one  object  which  appeals 
alike  to  every  fundamental  instinct  in  our  composition. 
The  ideal  woman  does  not  require  to  be  "  many 
women  "  to  a  man  of  the  right  kind  in  the  sense  sug- 
gested in  Mr.  Maugham's  play.  She  requires  rather 
to  be  in  herself  at  one  and  the  same  time  or  at  differ- 
ent times,  mother,  wife  and  daughter.  This  condi- 
tion satisfied,  behold  the  ideal  marriage. 

It  is  probably  fair  to  say  that  the  three  strongest 
and  most  important  needs  of  a  man's  nature  are  those 
which  are  satisfied  by  mother,  wife,  and  daughter. 
Primarily,  perhaps,  his  wife  must  be  to  him  his  wife, 
his  contemporary  and  partner,  and  there  must  be  a 
physical  bond  between  them.  (Doubtless  there  are 
many  happy  marriages  where  this  primary  condition 
is  not  satisfied,  this  primitive  form  of  affection  being 
substantially  absent,  and  its  presence  being  proved 
non-essential:  but  such  must  be  a  state  of  unstable 


The  Conditions  of  Marriage  275 

equilibrium  at  best,  though  the  concession  must  be 
made.)  Now  the  problem  for  the  wife  is  to  unite  in 
her  person  and  in  her  personality  those  other  feelings 
which  are  part  of  normal  human  nature.  Every  man 
likes  to  be  mothered  at  times,  and  it  is  for  his  wife  to 
see  that  she  performs  that  function  better  than  any 
other;  better  even  than  his  own  mother.  Where  he 
finds  merely  physical  satisfaction,  he  also  finds,  happy 
man,  sympathy  and  comfort,  protection  and  solace, 
balm  for  wounded  self-esteem — everything  that  the 
hurt  or  slighted  child  knows  he  will  find  in  his  mother's 
arms. 

Yet  again,  a  man  likes  not  only  to  be  mothered  but 
he  likes  to  play  the  father.  Let  his  wife  be  a  daughter 
to  him ;  let  her  be  capable  of  shrinking,  so  to  say,  into 
small  space,  becoming  little  and  confident  and  appeal- 
ing and  calling  forth  every  protective  impulse  of  her 
husband's  nature. 

To  one  who  knew  nothing  of  human  nature  it  might 
sound  as  if  we  were  asking  more  of  womanhood  than 
is  within  its  capacity.  But  many  a  man  and  many  a 
woman  will  know  better.  The  right  kind  of  woman 
can  be  and  is  mother,  wife  and  daughter  to  her  hus- 
band; and  in  every  one  of  these  capacities  she  strength- 
ens her  hold  in  the  other  two.  Let  the  happily  mar- 
ried examine  their  happiness,  and  they  will  discover 
that  the  Preacher  was  right  when  he  said:  "  and  a 
threefold  cord  is  not  quickly  broken." 

What  has  here  been  said  is  perhaps  far  more  fun- 
damental, just  because  it  is  based  upon  the  primary  in- 
stincts of  humanity,  than  much  of  the  ordinary  talk 


276  Woman  and  Womanhood 

about  intellectual  companionship  and  the  like.  What 
a  man  wants  is  sympathy,  not  intellectual  companion- 
ship as  such;  what  a  man  wants  from  another  man,  in- 
deed, is  sympathy,  and  not  merely  intellectual  parity 
as  such.  The  man  who  annoys  us  is  not  he  who  is 
incapable  of  appreciating  our  arguments,  or  he  who 
does  not  share  our  knowledge,  but  he  who  is  out  of 
sympathy  with  us,  and  we  find  far  more  happiness  with 
the  rawest  youth  who,  though  entirely  ignorant,  is  at 
least  on  our  side — caring  for  the  things  for  which  we 
care.  Capacity  to  share  the  same  intellectual  work 
may  be  a  very  pleasant  addition  to  marriage,  but  it  is 
no  essential.  What  a  man  wants  is  that  his  wife  shall 
be  on  his  side  in  his  pursuits.  A  boy  does  not  require 
that  his  mother  shall  be  able  to  play  football  with  him, 
but  he  does  require  that  she  shall  care  whether  his  side 
wins  or  loses.  The  wife  who  is  a  true  mother  to  her 
husband,  in  this  sense,  need  not  be  concerned  because 
she  cannot,  let  us  say,  follow  his  working  out  of  a  geo- 
metrical proposition.  Let  her  be  on  his  side  whether 
he  fails  or  succeeds,  thus  playing  the  mother;  and  for 
the  rest,  if  she  asks  him  what  those  funny  marks  mean, 
she  can  play  the  daughter  too,  and  hold  his  heart  with 
both  hands  at  once. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  such  arguments  as  these  will 
persuade  the  reader  to  assent  to  our  rejection  of  the 
psychological  grounds  on  which  it  is  proposed  to  abol- 
ish monogamy.  We  extend  all  the  sympathy  in  the 
world  to  those  whose  fortune  has  been  unfortunate, 
and  we  admit  that  the  ideal  does  not  always  coincide 
with  the  real,  but  we  deny  that  the  supposed  argument 


The  Conditions  of  Marriage  277 

against  monogamy  is  based  upon  a  sound  understand- 
ing of  human  nature,  its  needs  and  its  unity  in  multi- 
plicity. 

If  we  are  to  stand  by  monogamy  it  behoves  us  to 
examine  very  carefully  certain  of  its  present  conditions 
which  militate  against  the  full  realization  of  its  value 
for  the  individual  and  for  the  race.  The  dispropor- 
tion of  the  sexes  we  have  already  discussed,  and  it  may 
here  be  assumed  that  that  grave  obstacle  to  the  suc- 
cess of  monogamy  is  removed.  There  remains  the 
fact,  probably  on  the  whole  a  quite  new  fact  of  our 
day,  that  under  modern  conditions  a  large  proportion 
of  women,  whose  quality  we  must  consider,  are  declin- 
ing monogamy  as  at  present  constituted. 

Let  it  be  granted  that  a  certain  number  of  these 
women  are  cranks,  aberrant  in  various  directions,  un- 
fitted for  any  kind  of  marriage,  undesirable  from  the 
eugenic  standpoint,  and  perhaps  less  often  declining  to 
be  married  than  failing  of  the  opportunity.  There 
remains  the  fact  that  a  large  and  probably  increasing 
number  of  women  are  nowadays  being  educated  up  to 
such  a  standard  of  ideals  that,  even  though  their  deci- 
sion involves  the  sacrifice  of  motherhood,  they  cannot 
consent  to  marriage  under  present  conditions.  It  is  not 
that  they  are  without  opportunity,  for  many  of  them 
during  ten  or  fifteen  years  of  their  lives  may  refuse 
one  proposal  after  another,  and  spend  the  intervals  in 
avoiding  the  onset  of  such  attentions.  It  is  not  neces- 
sarily that  the  men  who  propose  are  of  an  inferior 
type.  Such  women  may  refuse  many  men  who  come 
well  up  to  or  far  surpass  the  modern  male  standard. 


278  Woman  and  Womanhood 

It  is  not  that  they  are  by  any  means  without  capacity 
for  affection;  nor  can  one  be  at  all  certain  that  in  many 
cases  they  would  not  do  better  to  marry,  after  all, 
heavy  though  the  price  may  be. 

What  we  have  to  recognize  is  that  this  is  a  phe- 
nomenon in  every  way  evil.  There  must  be  something 
wrong  with  any  institution  which  does  not  appeal  to 
many  members  of  the  highest  types  of  womanhood. 
Perhaps  in  certain  of  its  details  this  institution  must 
be  an  anachronism,  a  survival  from  times  to  which  it 
may  have  been  well  suited  when  the  development  of 
womanhood  was  habitually  stunted,  but  inadequate  to 
satisfy  the  demands  of  fully  developed  womanhood 
in  our  own  days.  Now  from  the  eugenic  point  of  view 
it  is  of  course  the  finest  kind  of  women  that  we  desire 
to  be  the  mothers  of  the  future — the  more  and  not  the 
less  fastidious,  those  who  are  capable  of  the  highest 
development,  those  who  hold  themselves  in  the  high- 
est honour,  those  who  are  least  willing  to  renounce 
their  possession  of  themselves. 

Men  are  to  be  heard  who  say  that  this  is  all  non- 
sense; that  it  is  natural  for  women  to  surrender  them- 
selves, that  motherhood  is  a  splendid  reward,  and  that 
they  are  handsomely  paid  as  well  in  material  things. 
But  how  many  men  would  be  willing  to  marry  on  the 
conditions  with  which  marriage  is  offered  to  a  woman  ? 
How  many  men  would  be  willing  to  surrender  their 
possession  of  themselves  to  an  owner  for  life,  so  that 
at  no  future  hour  can  they  have  the  right  to  privacy? 
Of  course  if  the  conditions  for  marriage  were  for  a 
man  what  they  are  for  a  woman,  scarcely  any  men 


The  Conditions  of  Marriage  279 

would  marry,  and  men  would  very  soon  see  to  it  that 
these  conditions  were  utterly  altered.  They  are  con- 
ditions imposed  in  a  past  age  by  the  stronger  sex  upon 
the  weaker,  and  no  moral  defence  of  them  is  possible. 
It  may  be  argued,  and  might  long  have  been  argued, 
that  a  practical  defence  of  them  is  possible,  but  that  is 
undermined  in  our  own  time  when  we  find  that  under 
these  conditions  marriage  is  declined  by  a  large  num- 
ber of  the  best  women.  The  practical  argument  is 
now  the  other  way.  In  the  interests  of  elementary 
justice,  of  marriage,  of  the  individual  and  of  the  race, 
the  conditions  of  marriage  must  be  so  modified  that 
they  shall  be  equal  for  both  sexes,  and  that  the  best 
members  of  both  sexes  shall  find  them  acceptable. 
This  last  is  of  course  the  fundamental  eugenic  require- 
ment. 

The  initial  criticism  of  some  will  be,  no  doubt,  that 
many  men  who  now  marry  will  decline  the  bargain. 
But  surely  we  need  not  care  at  all — if  the  right  kind  of 
men  accept  it.  As  for  the  others,  in  the  coming  time, 
when  we  take  more  care  of  our  womanhood,  and  when 
they  are  deprived  of  the  economic  weapon,  they  may 
go  whither  they  will,  their  non-representation  in  the 
future  of  the  race  being  precisely  what  we  desire. 

Women,  then,  are  entitled  to  demand  that  the  con- 
ditions of  marriage  be  so  modified  as,  above  all  things, 
to  allow  them  the  possession  of  themselves  as  the  mar- 
ried man  has  possession  of  himself.  The  imposition 
of  motherhood  upon  a  married  woman  in  absolute 
despite  of  her  health  and  of  the  interests  of  the  chil- 
dren is  none  the  less  an  iniquity  because  it  has  at  pres- 


280  Woman  and  Womanhood 

ent  the  approval  of  Church  and  State.  It  is  woman 
who  bears  the  great  burden  of  parenthood,  and  with 
her  the  decision  must  rest.  It  is  idle  to  reply  that  this 
is  impossible,  for  it  is  possible,  as  there  are  not  a  few 
happy  wives  throughout  the  civilized  world  to  bear 
testimony.  Every  new  life  that  comes  into  being  is  to 
be  regarded  as  sacred  from  the  first.  The  accident  of 
birth  at  a  particular  stage  in  its  development  does  not 
in  the  slightest  degree  affect  this  ethical  principle,  as 
even  the  law,  for  a  wonder,  recognizes.  The  full  ac- 
ceptance of  the  principle  that  woman  must  decide  is, 
I  am  convinced,  the  only  right  and  effective  way  in 
which  to  abolish  altogether  the  dangers  at  present  run 
by  the  life  which  is  at  once  unborn  and  unwanted.  The 
decision  must  be  made  once  and  for  all  before  the  new 
life  is  called  into  initial  being,  and  the  last  word  must 
lie  with  her  who  is  to  bear  it.  I  am  strengthened  in 
the  enunciation  of  this  principle  by  the  reflection  that 
it  would  be  ridiculed  and  condemned  by  the  vote  of 
every  public-house  and  music-hall  throughout  the  civi- 
lized world. 

Let  it  be  observed  that  in  thus  allowing  the  wife  the 
possession  of  her  own  person,  we  are  giving  her  only 
what  her  husband  possesses,  and  that  her  possession 
of  herself  is  of  vastly  more  moment  to  her  than  his 
own  liberty  to  him.  Nothing  more  than  sheer  equality 
is  being  claimed  for  her,  and  the  claim  in  her  case  has 
a  double  strength,  since  it  is  made  valid  not  only  by 
her  own  interests  but  by  those  of  the  future.  The  fu- 
ture must  be  protected,  and  therefore  she  who  is  its 
vessel  must  be  protected.  This  is  no  more  than  the 


The  Conditions  of  Marriage  281 

sub-human  mother  everywhere  has  as  her  birthright, 
and  however  much  this  teaching  may  offend  the  com- 
mon male  assumption  that  a  wife  is  a  form  of  prop- 
erty, the  future  certainly  holds  within  itself  the  estab- 
lishment of  this  principle. 

The  question  of  divorce  is  so  important  that  we 
must  defer  it  to  the  next  chapter. 

We  have  briefly  alluded  to  the  question  of  the  wife's 
possession  of  herself.  We  must  now  refer  to  the 
question,  scarcely  less  important,  of  her  possession  of 
her  own  property  and  her  claims  upon  her  husband's. 
It  is  difficult  for  the  present  generation  to  realize  that 
very  few  decades  have  passed  since  the  time  when 
everything  which  a  woman  possessed  became,  when 
she  married,  the  property  of  her  husband.  That  is 
now  a  question  which  there  is  no  need  to  discuss,  but 
there  remains  a  very  great  issue,  lately  become  promi- 
nent, and  suggested  by  the  popular  phrase,  the  endow- 
ment of  motherhood. 

We  should  obviously  be  false  to  our  first  principles 
if  we  did  not  assent  with  all  our  hearts  to  the  funda- 
mental principle  expressed  by  this  phrase.  If  it  is  nec- 
essary that  the  wife  be  protected  as  a  wife,  it  is  even 
more  necessary  that  she  be  protected  as  a  mother. 
There  are  twelve  hundred  thousand  widows  in  this 
country  at  the  present  time,  and  of  these  a  large  num- 
ber stand  in  unaided  parental  relation  to  a  great  mul- 
titude of  children.  I  showed  some  years  ago  that,  as 
we  shall  see  in  more  detail  in  a  later  chapter,  alcohol 
makes  not  less  than  forty-five  thousand  widows  and 
orphans  every  year  in  England  and  Wales.  Nothing 


282  Woman  and  Womanhood 

can  be  more  certain  than  that,  in  the  interests  of  all 
except  the  worthless  type  of  man,  the  economic  protec- 
tion of  motherhood  is  an  urgent  need,  less  open  to 
criticism  perhaps  than  any  other  economic  reconstruc- 
tion proposed  by  the  reformer.  Some  will  argue,  of 
course,  that  the  State  is  to  look  after  children  directly, 
but  I,  for  one,  as  a  biologist,  have  no  choice  but  to  be- 
lieve that  the  way  to  save  children  is  to  safeguard 
parenthood,  and  I  cannot  question  that  our  duty  is  to 
provide  the  mother  with  the  necessary  means  for  per- 
forming her  supreme  function,  whether  she  has  a  liv- 
ing husband  or  is  a  widow  or  is  unmarried. 

The  question  remains,  how  is  this  to  be  done,  and 
whence  is  the  money  to  be  obtained? 

Here  we  join  issue  with  those  Socialist  writers  who 
advocate  the  endowment  of  motherhood  and  give  it 
their  own  meaning;  and  that  is  why  in  a  preceding 
paragraph  the  word  fundamental  has  been  empha- 
sized, since  in  the  endowment  of  motherhood  as  un- 
derstood by  socialists  there  are  two  principles,  one 
which  I  call  fundamental,  and  a  second — that  the  en- 
dowment shall  be  by  the  State — which  now  falls  to  be 
considered.  I  do  not  see  how  any  one  can  challenge 
the  following  sentences  from  Mr.  H.  G.  Wells: 

"  So  the  monstrous  injustice  of  the  present  time  which 
makes  a  mother  dependent  upon  the  economic  accidents  of  her 
man,  which  plunges  the  best  of  wives  and  the  most  admirable 
of  children  into  abject  poverty  if  he  happens  to  die,  which 
visits  his  sins  of  waste  and  carelessness  upon  them  far  more 
than  upon  himself,  will  disappear.  So  too  the  still  more  mon- 
strous absurdity  of  women  discharging  their  supreme  social 


The  Conditions  of  Marriage  283 

function,  bearing  and  rearing  children  in  their  spare  time,  as 
it  were,  while  they  earn  their  living  by  contributing  some  half 
mechanical  element  to  some  trivial  industrial  product,  will  dis- 
appear." * 

But  the  remarkable  circumstance  is  that  Mr.  Wells 
proposes  to  remedy  these  consequences  of,  for  in- 
stance, "  sins  of  waste  and  carelessness/'  not  by  deal- 
ing with  those  sins  but  by  the  simple  method  that  "  a 
woman  with  healthy  and  successful  offspring  will  draw 
a  wage  for  each  one  of  them  from  the  State  so  long 
as  they  go  on  well.  It  will  be  her  wage.  Under  the 
State  she  will  control  her  child's  upbringing.  How 
far  her  husband  will  share  in  the  power  of  direction 
is  a  matter  of  detail  upon  which  opinion  may  vary — 
and  does  vary  widely  amongst  Socialists."  How  far 
a  father  is  to  share  in  directing  his  children's  upbring- 
ing is  "  a  matter  of  detail,"  we  are  told.  The  phrase 
suffices  to  show  that  whatever  we  are  dealing  with 
here  is  either  sheer  fantasy  or  else  thinking  of  so  crude 
a  kind  as  to  be  unworthy  of  the  name.  Since  early 
in  the  history  of  the  fishes  paternal  responsibility  has 
been  a  factor  of  ascending  evolution.  It  has  ever 
been  a  more  and  more  responsible  thing  to  be  a  father. 
It  is  now  proposed  to  reduce  fatherhood  to  the  purely 
physiological  act — as  amongst,  shall  we  say,  the  sim- 
pler worms;  and  the  proposal  is  only  "  a  matter  of 
detail." 

Probably  we  had  better  go  our  own  way,  and  waste 
no  more  time  upon  this  kind  of  thing.  There  remains 

*  "  Socialism  and  the  Family,"  Sixpenny  Edition,  p.  59. 


284  Woman  and  Womanhood 

to  answer  our  question,  how  is  motherhood  to  be  en- 
dowed; and  the  answer  I  propose  is  by  fatherhood. 
Motherhood  is  already  so  endowed  in  many  a  happy 
case.  There  are  quite  a  number  of  men  to  be  found 
who  take  such  a  remarkable  pride  and  interest  in  their 
own  children  that  their  u  share  in  the  power  of  direc- 
tion "  is  a  real  one,  and  would  never  occur  to  them  to 
be  "  a  matter  of  detail."  They  regard  their  earnings, 
these  unprogressive  fathers,  as  in  large  measure  a  trust 
for  their  wives  and  children,  and  expend  them  accord- 
ingly. They  are  not  guilty  of  u  sins  and  waste  and 
carelessness  ";  and  some  of  them  are  even  inclined  to 
question  whether  they  should  pay  for  the  results  of 
such  sins  on  the  part  of  other  men :  and  since  those 
who  believe  in  the  "  fetish  of  parental  responsibility," 
to  quote  the  favourite  Socialist  cliche,  can  show  that 
this  is  not  a  fetish  but  a  tutelary  deity  of  Society, 
whose  power  has  been  increasing  since  backbones  were 
invented,  they  may  be  well  assured  that  the  last  word 
will  be  with  them. 

What  we  require  is  the  application  of  the  principle 
of  insurance;  we  must  compel  a  husband  and  father 
to  do  his  duty,  as  many  husbands  and  fathers  do  their 
duty  now  without  compulsion.  We  must  regard  him 
as  responsible  in  this  supremely  important  sphere,  as 
we  do  in  every  other.  Doubtless,  this  will  often  mean 
some  interference  with  his  "  sins  of  waste  and  care- 
lessness " ;  and  so  much  the  better  for  everybody. 
Those  who  prefer  to  be  wasteful  and  careless  had  best 
remain  in  the  ranks  of  bachelorhood.  We  have  no 
clesire  for  any  representation  of  their  moral  charac- 


The  Conditions  of  Marriage  285 

teristics  in  future  generations,  but  if  they  do  marry 
they  must  be  controlled.  Meanwhile  our  champions 
of  paternal  irresponsibility  are  having  things  all  their 
own  way.  Every  year  more  children  are  being  fed 
at  the  expense  of  the  State,  and  there  is  no  one  to  chal- 
lenge the  father  who  smokes  and  drinks  away  any  pro- 
portion of  his  income  that  he  pleases. 

Perhaps  we  may  now  attempt  to  sum  up  the  sug- 
gestion of  this  chapter.  It  is  based  upon  a  belief  in 
the  principle  of  monogamy — without,  as  some  would 
assert,  a  credulous  acceptance  of  all  the  present  condi- 
tions of  that  institution.  The  principle  underlying  it 
may  be  right  and  impossible  of  improvement,  but  our 
practice  may  be  hampered  by  any  number  of  supersti- 
tions, traditions,  injustices,  economic  and  other  diffi- 
culties, which  nevertheless  do  not  invalidate  our  ideal. 

Therefore,  instead  of  proposing  to  abolish  monog- 
amy or  that  great  principle  of  common  parental  care 
of  children,  the  support  of  motherhood  by  fatherhood, 
which  is  perfectly  expressed  in  monogamy  alone,  let 
us  seek  rather,  in  the  interests  of  the  future — which 
will  mean  proximately  in  the  interests  of  woman,  the 
great  organ  of  the  future — to  make  the  conditions  of 
marriage  such  that  it  best  serves  the  highest  interests. 
We  need  not  cavil  at  those  who  look  upon  marriage 
as  a  symbol  of  the  union  between  Christ  and  His 
Church,  but  we  must  look  upon  it  also  as  a  human  in- 
stitution which  exists  to  serve  mankind  and  must  be 
treated  accordingly.  We  are  quite  prepared  to  accept 
in  its  place  any  other  institution  which  will  serve  man- 


286  Woman  and  Womanhood 

kind  better,  and  we  adhere  to  monogamy  only  because 
such  an  alternative  cannot  be  named. 

We  are  to  regard  any  disproportion  in  the  number 
of  the  sexes  as  inimical  to  monogamy.  We  know  that 
in  the  past,  when  there  has  been  a  great  excess  of 
women,  as  owing  to  chronic  militarism,  polygamy  has 
been  the  natural  consequence;  and  we  must  recognize 
that  such  an  excess  of  women  at  the  present  day  is  a 
predisposing  cause,  if  not  of  polygamy,  of  something 
immeasurably  worse.  The  causes  of  that  excess  of 
women  have  therefore  been  examined  in  some  degree, 
and  our  duty  of  opposing  them  is  laid  down  as  a  fun- 
damental political  proposition. 

We  then  discussed  and  criticized  a  second  argument 
for  polygamy,  based  upon  the  assumption  that  a  man 
requires  more  from  women  than  one  woman  can  af- 
ford him.  The  answer  to  that  argument  is  that  many 
women  exist  who  meet  all  their  husbands'  needs  and 
satisfy  all  their  instincts,  and  that  for  this  end  the  in- 
tensive education  of  woman's  intellect  is  not  a  neces- 
sary condition.  It  may  be  added  that  if  the  race  is 
to  rise,  the  highest  type  of  women  as  well  as  the  high- 
est type  of  men  must  be  its  parents,  the  mothers  being 
exactly  as  important  as  the  fathers  on  the  score  of 
heredity.  Any  attempt,  therefore,  to  split  up  woman- 
hood, so  that  the  lower  types  shall  become  the  mothers, 
and  the  higher  the  companions  of  men,  is  a  directly 
dysgenic  proposal,  opposing  the  great  eugenic  prin- 
ciple that  the  best  of  both  sexes  must  be  the  parents 
of  the  future. 

When  we  find,  therefore,  that  marriage  under  pres- 


The  Conditions  of  Marriage  287 

ent  conditions  does  not  satisfy  many  of  the  highest 
kinds  of  women,  we  must  ask  whether  their  dissatis- 
faction is  warranted,  and  if,  as  we  do,  we  find  it  based 
upon  the  fact  that  the  present  conditions  are  grossly 
unjust  to  women,  we  must  modify  those  conditions  so 
that,  at  the  very  least,  the  wife  and  mother  shall  not 
have  the  worst  of  them. 

Finally,  whatever  we  may  fail  to  achieve  because, 
for  instance,  of  some  fundamental  facts  of  human  na- 
ture against  which  it  is  vain  to  legislate,  at  least  we 
have  economic  conditions  under  our  control,  and  con- 
trol them  we  must,  so  that,  whoever  shall  be  in  a  posi- 
tion of  economic  insecurity,  at  least  it  shall  not  be  the 
mothers  of  the  future.  Our  first  concern  must  be  to 
safeguard  them,  whosoever  else  is  inconvenienced. 
In  deciding  how  this  is  effected  we  are  to  be  guided 
by  that  great  fact  of  increasing  paternal  responsibility 
which  is  demonstrated  by  the  history  of  animal  evolu- 
tion since  the  appearance  of  the  earliest  vertebrates, 
and  of  which  marriage,  in  all  its  forms,  is  at  bottom 
the  human  and  social  expression.  We  are  to  recog- 
nize that  if  sub-human  fathers  are  in  any  degree  held 
by  nature  responsible  with  their  mates  for  the  care  of 
their  offspring,  much  more  should  this  be  true  of  man, 
"  made  with  such  large  discourse,  looking  before  and 
after,"  who  is  to  be  held  responsible  for  all  his  acts, 
and  most  of  all  for  those  most  charged  with  conse- 
quence. The  man  who  brings  children  into  the  world 
is  responsible  to  their  mother  and  through  her  to  so- 
ciety at  large,  which  must  see  to  it  that  that  responsi- 
bility is  not  evaded.  At  present  in  England  the  work- 


288  Woman  and  Womanhood 

ing  man  spends  on  the  average  not  less  than  one-sixth 
of  his  entire  income  on  alcoholic  drinks,  whilst  society 
yearly  pays  for  the  feeding  of  more  of  his  children. 
But  it  is  not  good  enough  that  the  father  shall  swallow 
the  interests  of  the  future  in  this  fashion.  As  the 
State  in  Germany  takes  a  percentage  of  his  earnings 
in  order  to  protect  him  against  the  risks  of  the  future, 
so  we  must  see  to  it  that  the  necessary  proportion  of 
his  earnings  is  devoted  towards  discharging  the  re- 
sponsibilities which  he  has  incurred. 

A  notable  consequence  must  follow  from  many  such 
reforms  as  this  chapter  suggests.  The  marriage  rate 
must  fall,  and  the  birth-rate,  already  falling,  must  fall 
much  further;  and  so  assuredly  in  any  case  they  will; 
nor  need  anyone  be  alarmed  at  such  a  prospect.  Even 
from  the  point  of  view  of  quantity,  the  future  supply 
of  "  food  for  powder,"  and  so  forth,  the  question  is 
not  how  many  babies  are  born,  as  people  persist  in 
thinking,  but  how  many  babies  survive.  For  seven 
years  past  I  have  been  preaching,  in  season  and  out  of 
season,  that  our  Bishops  and  popular  vaticinators  in, 
general  are  utterly  wrong  in  bewailing  the  falling 
birth-rate,  whilst  the  unnecessary  slaughter  of  babies 
and  children  stares  them  in  the  face.  How  dare  they 
ask  for  more  babies  to  be  similarly  slain !  It  may  be 
permitted  to  quote  a  passage  written  several  years  ago. 
"  My  own  opinion  regarding  the  birth-rate  is  that  so 
long  as  we  continue  to  slay,  during  the  first  year  of 
life  alone,  one  in  six  or  seven  of  all  children  born  (the 
unspeakably  beneficent  law  of  the  non-transmission  of 
acquired  characters  permitting  these  children  to  be 


"The  Conditions  of  Marriage  289 

born  amazingly  fit  and  well,  city  life  notwithstanding) , 
the  fall  in  the  birth-rate  should  be  a  matter  of  hu- 
manitarian satisfaction.  Let  us  learn  how  to  take 
care  of  the  fine  babies  that  are  born,  and  when  we  have 
shown  that  we  can  succeed  in  this,  as  we  have  hitherto 
most  horribly  failed,  we  may  begin  to  suggest  that 
perhaps,  if  the  number  were  increased,  we  might  rea- 
sonably expect  to  take  care  of  that  number  also. 
Babies  are  the  national  wealth,  and  in  reality  the  only 
national  wealth;  and  just  as  a  sensible  father  will  sat- 
isfy himself  that  his  son  can  take  care  of  his  pocket- 
money,  before  he  listens  to  a  demand  for  its  augmen- 
tation, so,  as  a  people,  we  are  surely  responsible  to 
the  Higher  Powers,  or  our  own  ideals,  for  the  produc? 
tion  of  proof  that  we  can  take  care  of  the  young  help- 
less lives  which  are  daily  entrusted  to  us,  before  we 
cry  for  more.  It  would  be  easy  to  quote  episcopal  de- 
nouncements regarding  the  birth-rate,  but  I  am  at  a 
loss  for  references  to  similarly  influential  opinions 
about  the  slaughter  of  the  babies  that  are  born — a 
matter  which  surely  should  take  precedence.  May  I, 
in  all  deference,  commend  for  consideration  a  parable 
which  always  comes  to  my  mind  when  I  read  clerical 
comments  on  the  birth-rate,  without  reference  to  the 
infant-mortality?  It  was  figured  by  the  Supreme 
Lover  of  Children  that  a  wicked  servant,  entrusted 
with  a  portion  of  his  master's  wealth  to  turn  to  good 
account,  went  and  hid  it  in  the  earth.  He  was  not 
rewarded  by  the  charge  of  more  such  wealth.  We, 
as  a  people,  are  entrusted  with  living  wealth,  and, 
whilst  we  demand  more,  we  go  and  bury  much  of  it  in 


290  Woman  and  Womanhood 

the  earth — whence,  alas !  it  cannot  be  recovered.  Not 
an  increase  of  opportunity,  thus  wasted,  was  the  re- 
ward of  the  unprofitable  servant,  but  to  be  cast  into 
outer  darkness.  Is  there  no  moral  here?  " 

Very  distinguished  recent  authority  may  be  quoted 
in  favour  of  this  principle.  At  the  Annual  Public 
Meeting  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences,  held  in  Paris  in 
December,  1909,  Professor  Bouchard  discussed  the 
question  of  the  population  of  France,  and  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  birth-rate  "  depended  upon  social 
conditions  which  it  was  difficult  if  not  altogether  im- 
possible to  modify,  and  in  these  circumstances  the  al- 
ternative remedy  was  to  reduce  the  number  of  deaths." 

It  must  surely  be  plain  that  those  reforms  in  the  con- 
ditions of  marriage  which  have  been  advocated  in  this 
chapter  will  meet  this  need,  and  are  not  necessarily 
to  be  feared  even  by  those  who,  in  this  matter,  devote 
their  solicitude  entirely  to  the  question  of  numbers, 
quality  apart.  For  the  eugenist  who  is  primarily  con- 
cerned with  quality  these  reforms  are  surely  unchal- 
lengeable. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE    CONDITIONS    OF   DIVORCE 

A  BRIEF  chapter  must  be  devoted  to  the  question 
of  the  conditions  of  divorce,  which  are  really  part  of 
the  conditions  of  marriage.  Here,  as  in  every  other 
case,  we  must  apply  the  universal  and  unchallengeable 
eugenic  criterion:  the  conditions  of  divorce,  like  the 
conditions  of  marriage  itself,  must  be  such  as  best 
serve  the  future  of  the  race.  This  will  mean  that, 
in  the  first  place,  in  entering  upon  marriage — which 
of  necessity  means  so  much  more  to  a  woman  than  it 
does  to  a  man — the  woman  must  have  the  assurance 
that  when  the  conditions  of  the  contract  are  broken 
she  will  be  liberated.  The  law  must  bear  equally  upon 
the  two  sexes.  This  condition  of  safety,  once  estab- 
lished, may  determine  toward  marriage  a  certain  num- 
ber of  women  at  present  deterred  by  what  they  know 
of  the  manner  in  which  our  unjust  laws  now  work. 

Secondly,  Divorce  Law  Reform  in  the  right  inter- 
ests of  women  and  the  future  must  involve  the  com- 
plete protection  of  both  from,  for  instance,  the 
drunken  husband.  The  male  inebriate  is  on  all 
grounds  unfitted  to  be  a  father,  and  the  laws  of  di- 
vorce must  ensure  that  if  he  be  married,  his  wife  and 
therefore  the  future  shall  be  protected  from  him. 

291 


2Q2  Woman  and  Womanhood 

Those  of  us  who  believe  in  the  movement  for  Women 
Suffrage  will  be  grievously  disappointed  if,  when  that 
movement  at  last  succeeds,  such  fundamental  and  ur- 
gent reforms  as  these  are  not  promptly  effected. 

A  Royal  Commission  is  now  sitting  in  England  upon 
this  subject  of  Divorce  Law  Reform,  and  I  wish  to  re- 
peat here  with  all  the  emphasis  possible  what  has  been 
already  said  in  indirect  contribution  to  the  evidence 
laid  before  that  Commission.  It  is  that  the  first  prin- 
ciple of  judgment  in  all  such  matters  is  the  Eugenic 
one.  Primarily  marriage  is  an  invention  for  serving 
the  future  by  buttressing  motherhood  with  fatherhood. 
The  judgment  of  all  our  methods  of  marriage  and  di- 
vorce lies  with  their  products.  "  By  their  fruits  ye 
shall  know  them."  If  there  were  any  antagonism  be- 
tween the  interests  of  the  individual  and  those  of  the 
race  we  should  indeed  be  in  a  quandary,  but  as  I  have 
shown  a  hundred  times  there  is  no  such  antagonism. 
The  man  or  woman  from  whom  a  divorce  ought  to  be 
obtained  is  ipso  facto  the  man  or  woman  who  ought 
not  to  be  a  parent. 

When  it  is  a  question  of  life  or  gold,  we  in  England 
are  consistent  Mammon  worshippers.  Woe  to  the 
poacher,  but  the  wife  beater  has  only  strained  a  right 
and  may  be  leniently  dealt  with;  woe  to  the  destroyer 
of  pheasants,  but  the  destruction  of  peasants  is  a  de- 
tail. Thus  it  is  that  the  great  fundamental  questions 
which,  because  they  determine  the  destiny  of  peoples, 
are  the  great  Imperial  questions,  are  unknown  even  by 
repute  to  our  professed  Imperialists.  Every  kind  of 
industry  except  the  culture  of  the  racial  life  interests 


The  Conditions  of  Divorce  293 

them  profoundly — if  there  is  money  in  it.  The  whole 
nation  can  go  wild  over  a  budget  or  the  proposal  to 
revive  protection,  but  the  conditions  under  which  the 
race  is  recruited  are  the  concern  of  but  a  few,  who 
are  looked  upon  as  cranks.  In  the  case  of  such  a  ques- 
tion as  our  Divorce  Laws  the  public  is  substantially 
unaware  that  we  are  hundreds  of  years  behind  the  rest 
of  the  civilized  world;  that  our  practice  is  utterly  un- 
thought  out,  and  that  the  supposed  compromise  of 
Separation  Orders  is  insane  in  principle  and  hideous 
in  result.  The  present  law  bears  very  hardly  upon 
both  sexes  in  a  thousand  cases,  but  more  especially 
upon  women,  toward  whom  it  is  grossly  unjust.  All 
honour  is  due  to  the  Divorce  Law  Reform  Union,* 
which  for  many  years  has  devoted  itself  to  this  im- 
portant subject,  and  has  at  last  succeeded  in  obtafn- 
ing  the  formation  of  a  Royal  Commission,  the  upshot 
of  which,  we  may  hope,  will  be  to  reform  our  law  on 
moral,  humane,  and  eugenic  lines.  The  following  is 
a  striking  quotation  from  a  pamphlet  written  on  be- 
half of  this  Union  by  Mr.  E.  S.  P.  Haynes,  a  distin- 
guished expert. 

"  But  our  law  of  divorce  is  only  one  example  among  many 
of  our  hide-bound  attachment  to  ancient  abuses.  It  is  of  the 
utmost  importance  to  realize  that  Divorce  Law  Reform  will 
merely  bring  our  jurisprudence  up  to  the  level  of  the  modern 
enlightened  State.  It  involves  no  revolutionary  disturbance 
of  anything  but  our  crusted  ignorance  of  how  modern  civili- 
zation works  outside  England.  It  sets  out  to  place  the  family 
on  a  firmer  basis,  to  regulate  the  marriage  contract  on  equita- 

*  The  address  of  this  Union  is  20,  Copthall  Avenue,  London,  £.  C. 


294  Woman  and  Womanhood 

ble  lines,  and  to  improve  the  chances  of  the  future  generation 
in  a  country  where  deserted  wives  fill  the  work-houses  and 
forty  thousand  illegitimate  children  are  born  every  year." 

In  Germany,  which  we  are  always  being  asked  to 
imitate  in  non-essentials  by  the  more  stupid  kind  of 
Imperialist — the  kind  which  only  very  strong  empires 
can  survive — the  law  of  divorce  is  vastly  superior  to 
ours.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  judicial  separation, 
which  "  is  rightly  condemned  as  being  contrary  to  pub- 
lic policy."  Further,  as  Mr.  Haynes  points  out,  "  In 
Germany  a  male  cannot  marry  under  twenty-one  or  a 
female  under  eighteen,  whether  parental  consent  is 
available  or  not.  In  England  a  man  may  and  not  infre- 
quently does  cut  his  wife  and  family  out  of  his  will; 
in  Germany  the  rights  of  wife  and  children  are  prop- 
erly safeguarded  by  limiting  this  liberty  of  disposition. 
In  England  a  father  need  not  do  more  for  his  children 
than  keep  them  out  of  the  work-house  unless  he  has 
brought  himself  under  Divorce  Jurisdiction;  in  Ger- 
many he  is  obliged  to  maintain  them  in  a  suitable  man- 
ner. In  England  a  spendthrift  or  dipsomaniac  can 
only  be  controlled  when  he  has  spent  all  his  money. 
In  Germany  such  persons  are  protected  from  them- 
selves by  the  family  council.  In  England  an  illegiti- 
mate child  can  never  be  legitimated  by  the  subsequent 
marriage  of  the  parents.  In  Germany  this  humane 
and  reasonable  opportunity  of  making  reparation  to 
the  child  exists  as  a  matter  of  course." 

Here  in  England  we  have  one  law  for  the  rich  and 
another  for  the  poor,  for  the  average  cost  of  a  decree 
is  about  £100;  and  a  case  was  recently  reported  in 


The  Conditions  of  Divorce  295 

which  a  woman  had  saved  up  for  twenty  years  in  order 
to  obtain  a  divorce.  What  an  absolutely  abominable 
scandal;  how  hideously  beneath  the  level  of  practice 
amongst  what  we  are  pleased  to  call  savage  peoples. 
As  everyone  knows,  the  present  law  directly  encour- 
ages immorality,  pronouncing  separation  without  the 
power  of  re-marriage — that  is  to  say,  the  greater  pun- 
ishment, for  lesser  offences,  and  divorce  with  the 
power  of  re-marriage,  that  is  to  say,  the  lesser  punish- 
ment, for  greater  offences. 

Further,  the  law  totally  ignores  the  interests  of  the 
future  in  conspicuous  cases  where  one  or  other  possi- 
ble parent  is  hopelessly  unfit  for  such  a  function.  In 
the  interests  not  only  of  the  individual  but  the  future 
it  would  be  advisable  to  grant  divorce  to  a  person 
whose  partner  had  been  confined  in  a  lunatic  asylum 
for,  say  five  years,  and  who  could  be  certified  as  likely 
to  remain  insane  permanently,  or  whose  partner  had 
been  confined  in  an  Inebriates'  Home  for,  say,  two 
terms  of  one  year,  or  who  could  be  proved  and  certi- 
fied to  be  an  incurable  drunkard. 

We  must  abolish  these  atrocious  Separation  Orders, 
with  their  direct  promotion  of  every  kind  of  immoral- 
ity, illegitimacy  and  cruelty  to  women.  But  perhaps 
this  chapter  may  be  brought  to  a  close  since  in  England 
the  matter  is  now  before  a  Royal  Commission,  and 
since  our  stupidities  are  of  no  direct  interest  to  the 
American  reader.  It  was  necessary,  however,  to  deal 
with  the  subject  because  of  its  immediate  and  urgent 
bearing  upon  many  of  the  problems  of  Womanhood. 


CHAPTER    XIX 

THE   RIGHTS    OF   MOTHERS 

WE  reach  here  a  central  question  which  must  be  ap- 
proached from  the  right  point  of  view  or  we  shall  cer- 
tainly fail  to  solve  it.  That  point  of  view  is  the  child's. 
There  is  a  school  of  thought  which  approaches  the 
question  otherwise — on  abstract  principles  of  justice 
and  individual  independence.  The  only  objection  to 
them  is  that,  if  upheld  on  modern  conditions,  these 
principles  would  soon  leave  us  without  anyone  to  up- 
hold them.  The  relation  of  the  mother  to  the  State 
is  central  and  fundamental,  however  considered,  and 
the  principles  on  which  it  must  be  settled  must,  above 
all,  be  principles  which  are  compatible  with  the  fun- 
damental conditions  on  which  States  can  endure. 

Those  principles,  surely,  are  two.  The  first  is  that 
in  a  State  we  are  members  one  of  another,  and  that 
those  who  need  help  must  be  helped.  This  will  be 
indignantly  repudiated  by  a  stern  school  of  thought, 
but  what  if  it  applies,  everywhere,  always  and  above 
all,  to  children?  They  are  members  of  the  commu- 
nity who  need  help  and  they  must  be  helped.  The 
second  principle  is  indeed  only  a  special  case  of  the 
first.  It  is  that  if  the  State  is  to  continue,  it  must  rear 
children. 

296 


The  Rights  of  Mothers  297 

We  take  it  then,  first,  that  the  moral  and  social  law 
is  perfectly  final  as  to  the  right  of  every  child  to  exist- 
ence. There  are  no  principles  of  national  welfare 
which  can  divorce  us  from  the  simple  truth  that  we 
must  regard  every  human  individual  as  sacred  from 
the  moment  of  its  coming  into  existence — and  that  is 
a  long  time  before  birth.  A  familiar  medical  dogma 
is,  "  Keep  everything  alive."  There  may  be  excep- 
tions to  it,  but  it  is  dangerous  to  discuss  them  with  the 
unprepared.  The  only  safe  principle  is  to  maintain, 
as  long  as  possible,  the  life  of  all — the  centenarian  or 
the  embryo  conceived  since  the  sun  set.  At  times  the 
State  deliberately  takes  life  on  behalf  of  life.  The 
sentence  of  execution  passed  upon  the  murderer  may 
be  warrantably  passed  by  the  State  of  the  future  or  its 
officers  upon  a  monstrous  birth,  a  baby  riddled  with 
congenital  syphilis  or  some  such  horrible  fruit  of  our 
present  carelessness  and  wickedness  in  such  matters. 
The  State  may  regard  such  children  or  their  survival 
as  illegitimate,  since  the  laws  of  nature  as  we  see  them 
at  work  throughout  the  living  world  do  not  approve 
the  survival  of  such.  Apart  from  these  cases,  all 
children  are  legitimate,  and  all  children  are  natural. 
Whatever  the  history  of  the  reader's  parents,  he  or 
she  was  assuredly  both  a  legitimate  child  and  a  natu- 
ral child — a  paradox  which  may  be  left  to  the  solu- 
tion of  the  curious.  Directly  a  new  human  being  has 
been  conceived,  its  right  to  existence  and  survival  may 
be  conceded.  Vast  numbers  of  human  beings  are  con- 
ceived every  year  whose  conception  is  a  sin  against 
themselves  and  the  State.  That  is  a  question  on  which 


298  Woman  and  Womanhood 

the  present  writer  has  written  and  spoken  incessantly 
for  years,  and  which  no  one  can  accuse  him  of  neg- 
lecting. But  here  we  have  to  deal  with  the  facts  of 
the  world  as  they  are  and  as  they  will  be  for  some 
time  to  come. 

All  children  are  to  be  cared  for.  No  child  should 
die;  there  should  be  no  infant  mortality;  the  children 
that  are  not  fit  to  live  should  not  be  conceived,  and 
those  that  are  fit  to  live  should  be  allowed  to  live;  all 
children  are  legitimate.  If  the  State  has  any  kind  of 
business  at  all,  this  is  its  business. 

Our  subject  here,  the  reader  may  say,  is  not  chil- 
dren, but  woman  and  womanhood.  The  reply  is  that 
unless  we  have  our  principles  rightly  formulated,  we 
cannot  solve  this  question  of  the  rights  of  women  as 
mothers.  Failing  our  principles,  we  shall  be  reduced 
to  the  prejudices  which  serve  as  principles  for  our  po- 
litical parties.  We  shall  have  individualist  and  social- 
ist at  loggerheads,  the  friends  of  marriage  and  its 
enemies,  and  many  other  opposing  parties  who  cannot 
solve  the  question  for  us  because  they  have  not  waited 
first  to  discover  its  fundamentals.  The  rights  of 
mothers  can  be  approached  only  from  the  point  of  view 
of  the  rights  of  children.  We  may  happen  to  believe, 
as  the  present  writer  certainly  does,  that  parents  should 
be  responsible  for  their  children.  He  once  lectured 
for,  and  published  the  lectures  in  association  with,  a 
body  called  the  British  Constitution  Association,  which 
holds  the  same  belief,  but  when  he  found  as  he  did  that 
protests  were  raised  against  any  suggestion  to  help 
children  whose  parents  do  not  do  their  duty,  it  became 


The  Rights  of  Mothers  299 

plain  that  principles  which  were  right  in  a  merely  sec- 
ondary and  conditional  way  were  being  made  absolute 
and  fundamental.  The  fundamental  is  that  the  child 
shall  be  cared  for;  the  conditional  and  secondary  prin- 
ciple is  that  this  is  best  effected  through  the  parents. 
To  say  that  if  the  parents  will  not  do  it,  the  child  must 
be  left  to  starve,  is  immoral  and  indecent.  Worse 
words  than  those,  if  such  exist,  would  be  required  to 
describe  our  neglect  of  illegitimate  infancy;  our  cruelty 
toward  widows  and  orphans;  our  utterly  careless  main- 
tenance of  the  conditions  which  produce  these  hapless 
beings  in  such  vast  numbers. 

If  every  child  is  sacred,  every  mother  is  sacred.  If 
every  child  is  to  be  cared  for,  every  mother  must  be 
cared  for.  It  is  true  that  we  may  make  experiment 
with  devices  for  superseding  the  mother.  Man  has  im- 
pudent assurance  enough  for  anything,  and  if  Nature 
has  been  working  at  the  perfection  of  an  instrument  for 
her  purpose  during  a  few  score  million  years — an  in- 
strument such  as  the  mammalian  mother,  for  instance 
— man  is  quite  prepared  to  invent  social  devices,  such 
as  the  incubator,  the  creche,  the  infant  milk  depot, 
and  so  forth;  not  merely  to  make  the  best  of  a  bad  case 
when  the  mother  fails,  but  to  supersede  the  mother 
altogether  directly  the  baby  is  born.  Such  cases,  ex- 
cept in  the  last  resort,  are  more  foolish  than  words  can 
say.  We  have  to  save  our  children ;  we  can  only  do  so 
effectively  through  the  naturally  appointed  means  for 
saving  children,  which  is  motherhood.  The  rights  of 
mothers  follow  as  a  necessary  consequence  from  our 
first  principle,  which  was  the  rights  of  children.  Be- 


300  Woman  and  Womanhood 

cause  every  child  must  be  protected,  every  mother  must 
be  protected,  if  not  in  one  way,  in  another. 

The  State  may  not  be  able  to  afford  this.  The  ne- 
cessities of  existence  may  be  so  difficult  to  obtain,  not 
to  mention  for  a  moment  such  luxuries  as  alcohol  and 
motor-cars  and  warships  and  fine  clothes  and  art,  and 
so  forth,  that  no  arrangements  for  the  support  of 
motherhood  can  be  made.  If  we  lay  down  the  proposi- 
tion that  no  mother  should  work  because  she  is  already 
doing  the  supreme  work.,  it  may  be  replied  that  this 
is  economically  impossible;  the  thing  cannot  be  done. 
The  only  reply  to  this  is  that  the  State  which  cannot 
afford  to  provide  rightly  for  the  means  of  its  continu- 
ance had  better  discontinue,  and  must  in  any  case  soon 
do  so.  Motherhood  is  rapidly  declining  as  a  numeri- 
cal fact  in  civilized  communities  generally.  Not 
merely  does  the  birth-rate  fall  persistently  and  without 
the  slightest  regard  to  the  commentators  thereon,  but 
it  will  continue  to  do  so  for  many  years  to  come.  In 
the  light  of  this  fact  the  great  argument  of  presidents 
and  bishops,  politicians  and  journalists,  moralists  and 
social  censors  generally  is  that  somehow  or  other 
this  decline  must  be  arrested.  To  all  of  which  one 
replies,  for  the  thousand  and  first  time,  that,  what- 
ever it  ought  to  be,  it  will  not  be  arrested;  that  the 
really  moral  policy,  the  really  human  one,  and  the  only 
possible  one,  is  to  take  care  of  the  children  that  are 
born.  Then  when  we  have  abolished  our  infant  and 
child  mortality  and  have  solved  the  substantial  prob- 
lem of  finding  room  for  all  new-comers,  having  ceased 
to  far  more  than  decimate  them,  we  may  begin  cau- 


The  Rights  of  Mothers  301 

tiously  to  suggest  that  perhaps  if  the  birth-rate  were 
slightly  to  rise  we  might  be  able  to  cope  with  the  prod- 
uct. At  present  the  disgraceful  fact  is  not  the  birth- 
rate, but  what  we  do  with  the  birth-rate;  though  more 
disgraceful  perhaps  are  the  blindness  and  ignorance 
and  assurance  of  the  host  of  commentators  in  high 
places  who  waste  their  time  and  ours  in  animadverting 
upon  a  fact — the  falling  birth-rate — which  is  a  neces- 
sary condition  and  consequence  of  organic  progress, 
whilst  the  motherhood  we  have  is  so  urgently  in  need 
of  protection  and  idealization  in  the  minds  of  the 
people. 

We  have  reached  the  conclusion  that  all  motherhood 
is  to  be  protected.  This  means  that  from  some  source 
or  other  the  money  shall  be  forthcoming  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  mother  and  her  children.  For,  in  the 
first  place,  the  children  are  not  to  work  because,  if  they 
do,  they  will  not  be  able  to  work  as  they  should  in  the 
future.  The  State  cannot  afford  to  let  them  work. 
Further,  the  proper  care  of  childhood  is  so  continuous 
and  exacting  a  task,  and  of  such  supreme  moment,  that 
it  is  the  highest  and  foremost  work  that  can  be  named; 
and  therefore,  in  the  second  place,  she  whose  business 
it  is  must  not  be  hampered  by  having  to  do  anything 
else.  If  any  labourer  is  worthy  of  his  hire,  she  is. 
Her  economic  security  must  be  absolute.  She  must  be 
as  safe  as  the  Bank  of  England,  because  England  and 
its  banks  stand  or  fall  with  her.  In  the  rightly  consti- 
tuted State,  if  there  be  any  one  at  all  whose  provision 
and  maintenance  are  absolutely  secure,  it  will  be  the 
mothers.  Whoever  else  has  financial  anxiety,  they  shall 


302  Woman  and  Womanhood 

have  none.  Any  State  that  can  afford  to  exist  can  af- 
ford to  see  to  this.  No  economist  can  inform  me  what 
proportion  of  the  labour  and  resources  of  England  are 
at  this  moment  devoted  to  the  means  of  life,  and  what 
proportion  to  superfluities,  luxuries  and  the  means  of 
death.  But  it  is  a  very  simple  matter  with  which  the 
reader,  who  is  doubtless  a  better  arithmetician  than  I 
am,  may  amuse  himself,  to  estimate  the  number  of  mar- 
ried women  of  reproductive  age  in  the  community,  and 
allowing  anything  in  reason  for  illegitimate  mother- 
hood and  nothing  at  all  for  infertile  wives,  to  satisfy 
himself  that  the  total  cost  which  would  be  involved  in 
the  adequate  care  of  motherhood,  is  a  mere  fraction  of 
the  national  expenditure.  Few  of  us  realize  how  ex- 
traordinary and  how  unprecedented  is  the  margin  of 
security  for  existence  which  modern  civilization  af- 
fords. A  savage  community  may  have  scarcely  any 
margin  at  all.  The  same  may  be  true  of  many  primi- 
tive communities  which  cannot  be  called  savage.  They 
maintain  life  under  such  conditions,  whether  in  Green- 
land or  in  a  thousand  other  parts  of  the  world,  that 
they  cannot  afford  to  labour  for  any  thing  which  is  not 
bread.  The  primary  necessities  of  existence  take  all 
their  getting.  Some  transient  accident  of  weather  or 
the  balance  of  Nature  in  the  sea  or  in  the  fields  im- 
perils the  existence  of  the  whole  community.  They, 
at  any  rate,  are  wise  enough  to  take  good  care  of  their 
women  and  children.  But  in  civilization  we  have  an 
enormous  margin  of  security.  Not  only  are  we  de- 
pendent on  no  local  crop  or  harvest,  but  the  getting  of 
necessities  has  become  so  effective  and  secure  that  we 


The  Rights  of  Mothers  303 

are  able  to  spend  a  vast  amount  of  our  time  and  energy 
on  the  production  of  luxuries  and  evils.  How  little, 
then,  is  our  excuse  if  we  fail  to  provide  the  first  con- 
ditions for  continuance  and  progress ! 

Our  first  principles  of  the  value  of  the  child  and 
therefore  of  motherhood  are  unchallengeable,  nor  will 
anyone  nowadays  be  found  to  question  that  neither 
children  nor  mothers  should  work  in  the  ordinary  sense 
of  that  word,  since  the  proper  work  of  children  who 
are  to  work  well  when  they  grow  up  is  play,  and  since 
the  mother's  natural  work  is  the  most  important  that 
she  can  perform.  It  remains,  then,  for  us  to  deter- 
mine by  whom  mothers  and  children  in  the  modern  and 
future  State  are  to  be  provided  for. 

The  conditions  of  mothers  are  various,  and  we  shall 
best  approach  the  problem  by  the  consideration  of  dif- 
ferent cases. 

The  simplest  is  that  of  the  widowed  mother  who  is 
without  means.  It  is  only  too  common  a  case,  and 
we  have  already  seen  certain  causes  which  contribute 
to  the  enormous  number  of  widows  in  the  community. 
Men  do  not  live  as  long  as  women,  and  men  are  older 
when  they  marry.  These  natural  causes  of  widow- 
hood, as  they  may  be  called,  are  greatly  aggravated 
by  the  destructive  influence  of  alcohol  upon  father- 
hood, as  will  be  shown  in  the  chapter  dealing  with 
alcohol  and  womanhood. 

On  the  individualistic  theory  of  the  State,  a  theory 
so  brutal  and  so  impracticable  that  no  one  consistently 
upholds  it,  the  widow's  misfortune  is  her  private  af- 
fair, but  does  not  really  concern  us.  Her  husband 


304  Woman  and  Womanhood 

should  have  provided  for  her.  Indeed  she  should,  and 
indeed  we  should  have  seen  that  he  did.  But  if  he  and 
we  failed  in  our  duty  to  her,  the  consequences  must  be 
met.  The  hour  is  at  hand  when  the  State  will  discover 
that  children  are  its  most  precious  possessions,  more 
precious  as  they  grow  scarcer,  and  efficient  support  will 
then  be  forthcoming,  as  a  matter  of  course,  for  the 
widowed  mother  and  her  children.  The  feature  which 
will  distinguish  this  support  from  any  past  or  present 
provision  will  be  that  it  recognizes  the  natural  sanc- 
tity and  the  natural  economy  of  the  relation  between 
mother  and  children.  It  will  be  agreed  not  merely 
that  the  children  must  be  provided  for,  but  that  they 
must  be  provided  for  through  her.  The  current  de- 
vice is  to  divorce  mother  and  children.  *  Whom  God 
hath  joined  together,  let  no  man  put  asunder,"  is 
quoted  by  many  against  the  divorce  of  a  married  pair 
whom,  as  is  plain,  not  God  but  the  devil  has  joined 
together;  but  the  principle  of  that  quotation  verily  ap- 
plies to  the  natural  and  divine  association  of  mother 
and  children. 

If,  then,  the  State  is  to  provide  in  future  for  all 
widowed  mothers  and  their  children,  husbands  need 
no  longer  trouble  to  insure  or  make  provision  for  them. 
Such  is  the  proper  criticism.  The  reply  to  it  is  that  the 
State  will  have  to  see  to  it  that,  in  future,  husbands  do 
take  this  trouble.  To  this  we  shall  return. 

Next  we  may  consider  the  case  of  the  unmarried 
mother  and  her  "  illegitimate "  child  or  children. 
Here,  again,  the  child  must  be  cared  for,  and  the  care 
of  the  child  is  the  work  which  has  been  imposed  upon 


The  Rights  of  Mothers  305 

the  mother.  We  must  enable  her  to  do  it,  nor  must 
we  countenance  the  monstrous  and  unnatural  folly,  in- 
jurious to  both  and  therefore  to  us,  of  separating  them. 
Napoleon,  desirous  of  food  for  powder,  forbade  the 
search  for  the  father  in  such  a  case,  though  the  French 
are  now  seeking  to  abrogate  that  abominable  decree. 
Our  law  recognizes  that  the  father  is  responsible,  and 
under  it  he  may  be  made  to  pay  toward  the  upkeep  of 
the  child.  Some  contemporary  writers  on  the  endow- 
ment of  motherhood  are  advocating  changes  which 
would  make  this  law  absurd,  for  they  are  seeking  to 
free  the  married  father  from  any  responsibility  for  his 
children,  and  could  scarcely  impose  it  upon  the  unmar- 
ried father.  Such  proposals,  however,  are  palpable 
reversions  to  something  much  lower  and  aeons  older 
in  the  history  of  life  than  mere  barbarism,  and  I  have 
no  fear  of  their  success.  Assuredly  the  unmarried 
father  must  be  held  responsible;  and  no  less  certainly 
must  we  see  to  it  that,  with  or  without  his  help,  the  un- 
married mother  and  her  children  are  adequately  pro- 
vided for.  The  present  death-rate  amongst  illegiti- 
mate children  is  a  scandal  of  the  first  order  and  must 
be  ended.  If  we  are  wise,  our  provision  will  involve 
protecting  ourselves  against  the  need  for  new  pro- 
vision, especially  where  the  mother  is  feeble-minded 
or  otherwise  defective,  as  is  so  often  the  case :  but  pro- 
vision there  must  be. 

Finally,  we  come  to  the  central  problem  of  the 
mother  who  has  a  living  husband  in  employment.  It  is 
the  case  of  the  working  classes  that  really  concerns 
us,  not  least  because  the  greater  part  of  the  birth-rate 


306  Woman  and  Womanhood 

comes  therefrom.  It  is  the  contemporary  settling- 
down  of  the  birth-rate  in  this  class,  combined  with  the 
novel  consequences  of  modern  industrialism,  especially 
in  the  form  of  married  women's  labour,  that  makes  the 
question  so  important.  Before  we  go  any  further,  the 
proposition  may  be  laid  down  that  married  women's 
labour,  as  it  commonly  exists,  is  an  intolerable  evil,  con- 
demned already  by  our  first  principles.  It  need 
scarcely  be  said  that  one  is  not  here  referring  to  the 
labours  of  the  married  woman  who  writes  novels  or 
designs  fashion-plates.  There  is  no  condemnation  of 
any  kind  of  labour,  in  the  home  or  outside  it,  if  the 
condition  be  complied  with,  that  it  does  not  prejudice 
the  inalienable  first  charge  upon  the  mother's  time  and 
energy.  Her  children  are  that  first  charge.  It  may 
perfectly  well  be,  and  often  is,  chiefly  though  not  ex- 
clusively in  the  more  fortunate  classes,  that  the  mother 
may  earn  money  by  other  work  without  prejudice  to 
her  motherhood.  Such  cases  do  not  concern  us,  but 
we  are  urgently  concerned  with  married  women's  la- 
bour in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  term,  which  means 
that  t-he  mother  goes  -out  to  tend  some  lifeless  machine, 
whilst  her  children  are  left  at  home  to  be  cared  for 
anyhow  or  not  at  all.  N<o  student  of  infant  mortality 
or  t'he  conditions  of  child  Me  and  child  survival  in  gen- 
eral :ha«  any  choice  but  to  condemn  this  whole  practice 
as  evfl,  root  and  branch.  And  from  the  national  and 
'economic  point  of  view  it  may  be  said  that  whatever 
the  mother  makes  in  the  factory  is  of  less  value  than 
the  children  who  consequently  die  at  home.  The  cul- 
ture of  the  racial  life  is  the  vital  industry  of  any  peo- 
ple, and  any  industry  that  involves  its  destruction  and 


The  Rights  of  Mothers  307 

needs  the  conditions  which  make  up  that  destruction, 
is  one  which  the  country  cannot  afford,  whatever  its 
merely  monetary  balance-sheet.  A  complete  balance- 
sheet,  with  its  record  of  children  slain,  would  only  too 
readily  demonstrate  this. 

Our  right  attitude  toward  married  women's  labour 
must  depend  upon  a  right  understanding  of  the  social 
meaning  of  marriage.  This  was  a  question  which  had 
to  be  dealt  with  at  length  in  a  previous  volume  and  I 
can  only  state  here  in  a  word,  what  was  the  conclusion 
come  to.  It  was  that  marriage  is  a  device  for  support- 
ing and  buttressing  motherhood  by  fatherhood.  Its 
mark  is  that  it  provides  for  common  parental  care  of 
of  spring.  A  more  prosaic  way  of  stating  the  case 
would  be  that  marriage  is  a  device  for  making  the 
father  responsible.  If  we  go  far  back  in  the  history  of 
the  animal  world,  we  find  mating  but  not  marriage. 
The  father's  function  is  purely  physiological,  transient 
and  wholly  irresponsible.  The  whole  burden  of  car- 
ing for  offspring,  when  first  there  comes  to  be  need  for 
that  care,  in  the  history  of  organic  progress,  falls  upon 
the  mother.  But  even  amongst  the  fishes  we  find  that 
sometimes,  as  in  the  case  of  the  stickleback,  the  father 
helps  the  mother  to  build  a  sort  of  nest,  and  does  "  sen- 
try-go "  outside  it  to  keep  off  marauders.  In  this  com- 
mon care  of  the  young  we  see  what  is  in  all  essentials 
marriage,  though  some  may  prefer  to  dignify  the  word 
by  confining  it  to  those  human  associations  which  have 
been  blessed  by  Church  and  State,  even  though  the 
father  throws  the  baby  at  the  mother,  or  sends  her  into 
the  streets  to  earn  her  bread  and  his  beer. 

If  some  ef  our  modern  reformers  knew  any  biology, 


308  Woman  and  Womanhood 

or  even  happened  to  visit  a  music-hall  where  the  bio- 
graph  was  showing  scenes  of  bird-life,  they  would  learn 
that  the  human  arrangement  whereby  the  father  goes 
out  and  forages  for  mother  and  children  has  roots  in 
hoary  antiquity.  The  pity  is  that  there  is  no  one  to 
point  the  moral  to  the  crowd  when  the  father-bird  is 
seen  returning  with  delicacies  for  the  mother,  who 
tends  her  nest  and  its  occupants. 

The  reader  will  already  have  anticipated  the  con- 
clusion, to  which,  as  I  see  it,  the  study  of  the  funda- 
mental laws  of  life  must  lead  the  sociologist  in  this 
case.  It  is  that  the  duty  of  the  father  is  to  support 
the  mother  and  children,  and  that  the  duty  of  the  State 
is  to  see  that  he  does  this. 

Thus,  if  asked  whether  I  believe  in  the  endowment 
of  motherhood,  I  reply,  yes,  indeed,  I  believe  in  the 
endowment  of  motherhood  by  the  corresponding  fa- 
therhood. If  our  first  principles  are  sound,  we  must 
believe  that  the  mother  must  be  endowed  or  provided 
for;  there  can  be  no  difference  of  opinion  so  far. 
Often,  as  we  have  seen,  there  is  no  corresponding 
fatherhood,  for  the  mother  may  be  a  widow,  or  un- 
married and  unable  to  find  the  father.  But  where  the 
corresponding  fatherhood  exists,  we  fly  directly  in  the 
face  of  Nature,  we  deny  the  consistent  teaching  of  evo- 
lution as  the  study  of  sub-human  life  reveals  it  to  us, 
if  we  do  not  turn  to  the  father  and  say,  this  is  your 
act,  for  which  you  are  responsible. 

At  all  times  the  community  has  been  entitled  to  say 
this  to  the  father.  It  is  even  more  entitled  to  say  so 
now,  when,  as  everyone  knows,  parenthood  has  come 


The  Rights  of  Mothers  309 

so  entirely  under  the  sway  of  human  volition.  The 
more  knowledge  and  power  the  more  responsibility. 
The  more  important  the  deed,  the  more  responsible 
must  we  hold  the  doer.  The  time  has  come  when 
fatherhood,  whether  within  marriage  or  without  it, 
must  be  reckoned  a  deliberate,  provident,  foreseen,  all- 
important,  responsible  act,  for  which  the  father  must 
always  be  held  to  account. 

On  a  recent  public  occasion,  having  endeavoured  to 
show  that  the  history  of  animal  evolution  teaches  us 
the  increasing  importance  and  dignity  of  fatherhood, 
I  was  asked  whether  I  had  any  argument  in  favour  of 
parental  responsibility.  To  this  the  fitting  reply 
seemed  to  be  that,  primarily,  I  believe  in  parental  re- 
sponsibility because  I  believe  in  human  responsibility. 
It  need  hardly  be  said  that  the  questioner  belonged 
to  that  important  political  party  which  loathes  the 
idea  of  paternal  responsibility  and  styles  it  a  "  fetish.1' 
Without  it  none  of  us  would  be  here.  Yet  the  So- 
cialists are  less  likely  than  any  other  party  to  aban- 
don the  idea  of  human  responsibility.  They  pro- 
pose to  hold  men  responsible  for  the  remoter  effects 
of  their  acts — upon  the  present — as  no  other  party 
does.  The  maker  of  money  is  held  to  account  for  his 
deeds  and  their  effect  upon  the  life  around  him.  I 
agree  with  the  principle :  but  I  maintain  that  the 
maker  of  men  is  also  to  be  held  to  account  for  his  deeds 
and  their  effect  upon  the  future  and  the  life  of  this 
world  to  come.  No  Socialist  can  afford  to  question 
the  practical  political  principle  that  men  are  to  be  held 
responsible  for  their  deeds:  and  no  Socialist  can  ex- 


310  Woman  and  Womanhood 

plain  the  sudden  and  unexplained  abandonment  of  this 
principle  when  we  come  to  the  most  important  of  all 
a  man's  deeds.  To  be  consistent,  the  Socialist  should 
uphold  the  doctrine  of  a  man's  responsibility  for  the 
remoter  consequences  of  his  acts  in  this  supreme  sphere, 
more  earnestly  and  thoughtfully  and  providently  than 
any  of  his  opponents. 

The  position  of  those  who  would  free  the  father 
from  responsibility  is  even  less  defensible  when,  as  we 
commonly  find,  they  are  prepared  to  make  the  mother's 
responsibility  more  extensive  and  less  avoidable  than 
ever.  Why  this  distinction?  And  if  parental  respon- 
sibility is  a  "  fetish  "  when  it  refers  to  a  father,  why 
is  it  not  the  same  when  it  refers  to  a  mother?  In  the 
schemes  of  Mr.  H.  G.  Wells,  kaleidoscopic  in  their 
glitter  and  inconsistency,  there  remains  from  year  to 
year  this  one  permanent  element,  that  while  the  mother 
must  attend  to  her  business,  it  is  no  business  of  the 
father.  This  is  the  essential  feature,  the  one  novelty 
of  his  scheme.  Already  the  married  mother — he  pro- 
poses nothing  for  the  unmarrried  mother — is  legally 
entitled  to  some  measure  of  support.  His  endowment 
of  motherhood  is  essentially  a  discharge  of  fatherhood, 
and  should  be  so  called.  There  can  be  no  compromise, 
nothing  but  a  fight  to  the  finish,  between  the  principle 
of  endowing  motherhood  by  making  fatherhood  less 
responsible,  and  the  principle  here  fought  for,  of  en- 
dowing motherhood  by  making  fatherhood  more  re- 
sponsible. As  Nature  has  been  doing  so,  in  the  main 
line  of  progress  for  many  millions  of  years, — a  state- 
ment not  of  interpretation  or  theory  but  of  qbserved 


The  Rights  of  Mothers  311 

fact — I  have  no  fear  of  the  ultimate  issue.  But  it 
might  well  be  that  any  portion  of  mankind,  perhaps  a 
portion  ill  to  be  spared,  should  destroy  itself  by  an  at- 
tempt to  run  counter  to  the  great  principle  of  progress 
here  stated.  There  is  an  abundance  of  men  who  will 
be  very  happy  to  side  with  Mr.  Wells.  Men  have 
never  been  wanting,  in  any  time  or  place,  who  were 
happy  to  gratify  their  instincts  without  having  to  an- 
swer for  the  consequences;  and  it  has  always  been  the 
first  issue  of  any  society  that  was  to  endure,  to  see  that 
they  did  not  have  their  way:  hence  human  marriage. 
The  "  endowment  of  motherhood  "  sounds  as  if  it  were 
a  scheme  greatly  for  the  benefit  of  women.  Let  them 
beware.  Let  them  begin  to  think  of,  not  the  remoter, 
but  the  immediate  and  obvious  consequences  of  any 
such  schemes  as  are  proffered  by  the  overt  or  covert 
enemies  of  marriage,  and  they  will  quickly  perceive 
that  the  last  way  In  which  to  secure  the  rights  of  women 
is  to  abrogate  the  duties  of  men.  The  support  allotted 
to  such  schemes  as  these  is  not  feminine  but  masculine. 
That  is  the  impression  I  derive  from  discussions  fol- 
lowing lectures  on  the  subject;  and  that  is  what  I  should 
expect,  judging  from  the  natural  tendencies  of  men, 
and  the  profound  intuition  of  women  in  such  matters. 
And,  conversely,  the  opposition  to  such  principles  as 
are  expressed  here,  and  embodied  in  the  "  Women's 
Charter,"  will  be  masculine.  But  woman  has  been 
civilizing  man  from  the  beginning,  and  she  will  have 
her  way  here  also — for,  in  the  last  resort,  not  merely 
youth,  but  the  Unborn  must  be  served. 

Before  we  consider  the  alternative  suggestions  that 


312  Woman  and  Womanhood 

some  are  making,  and  proceed  to  indicate  how  the  pa- 
ternal endowment  of  motherhood  can  be  enforced  in 
every  class,  as  public  opinion  practically  enforces  it  in 
the  upper  and  middle  classes,  let  us  meet  the  objection 
that,  if  fatherhood  is  to  be  made  so  serious  an  act,  and 
if  so  much  self-sacrifice  is  to  be  exacted  from  those  who 
undertake  it,  the  marriage-rate  and  the  birth-rate  will 
fall  more  rapidly.  And  as  regards  the  marriage-rate, 
the  answer  is  that  marriage  and  parenthood  are  not 
inseparable,  a  proposition  which  might  be  much  am- 
plified if  a  writer  who  wishes  to  be  heard  could  afford 
to  have  the  courage  of  everybody's  convictions.  But 
already,  in  the  middle  classes,  men  limit  their  families 
to  the  number  they  can  support.  They  simply  prac- 
tise responsible  fatherhood,  and  the  mothers  and  chil- 
dren are  protected.  On  what  moral  grounds  this  is  to 
be  condemned,  no  one  has  yet  told  us. 

And  as  regards  the  effect  of  more  stringent  respon- 
sibility for  fatherhood  upon  the  birth-rate,  it  must  be 
replied,  for  the  thousandth  time  in  this  connection,  that 
the  question  for  a  nation  is  not  how  many  babies  are 
born,  but  how  many  survive.  The  idea  of  a  baby  is 
that  it  shall  grow  up  and  become  a  citizen;  if  babies 
remained  babies  people  would  soon  cease  to  complain 
about  the  fall  in  the  birth-rate.  But,  in  point  of  fact, 
a  vast  number  of  babies  and  children  are  unnecessarily 
slain,  and  if  we  could  suddenly  arrest  the  whole  of  this 
slaughter,  the  increase  of  population  would  become  so 
formidable  that  everyone  would  deplore  the  unman- 
ageable height  of  the  birth-rate.  Its  present  fall  is 
quite  incapable  of  arrest,  and  is  perfectly  compatible 


The  Rights  of  Mothers  313 

with  as  rapid  an  increase  of  population  as  any  one 
could  desire.  We  must  arrest  the  destruction  of  so 
much  of  the  present  birth-rate,  so  that  it  means  nought 
for  the  future.  By  nothing  else  will  this  arrest  be  so 
accelerated  as  by  those  very  measures  for  making 
fatherhood  more  responsible  for  the  care  of  mother- 
hood, which  are  here  advocated.  Let  it  be  freely 
granted  that  these  measures  will  lower  the  birth-rate. 
Much  more  will  they  lower  the  infant  mortality  and 
child  death-rate,  and  diminish  the  permanent  damag- 
ing of  vast  multitudes  of  children  who  escape  actual 
destruction. 

And  now  we  can  turn  to  those  proposals  which  have 
lately  been  revived  by  one  or  two  popular  writers  in 
England,  for  the  endowment  of  motherhood  by  the 
State,  leaving  the  fathers  in  peace  to  spend  their  earn- 
ings as  they  please,  whilst  others  support  their  children. 
Detailed  criticism  is  not  needed,  for  the  details  to  criti- 
cize are  not  forthcoming,  and  the  opinions  on  princi- 
ples and  on  details  of  these  imaginative  writers  are 
never  twice  the  same.  It  suffices  that  proposals  such 
as  these,  apart  from  their  vagueness  and  their  obvi- 
ous impracticability  in  any  form,  are  directly  con- 
demned by  the  fundamental  principle  that  a  man  shall 
be  responsible  for  his  acts.  The  endowment  of  moth- 
erhood, as  Mr.  Wells  means  it,  is  simply  a  phrase  for 
making  men  responsible  for  their  neighbours'  acts  and 
for  striking  hard  and  true  at  the  root  principle  of  all 
marriage,  human  or  sub-human,  which  is  the  common 
parental  care  of  offspring.  Reference  is  made  to  this 
proposal  here,  not  that  it  really  needs  criticism,  but  in 


314  Woman  and  Womanhood 

order  that  one  may  be  clearly  excluded  from  any  par- 
ticipation in  such  proposals. 

The  difference  between  such  schemes  for  the  endow- 
ment of  motherhood  and  the  proposal  here  advocated 
is  that  those  seek  to  endow  the  mother  by  making  the 
father  less  responsible — or,  rather,  wholly  irresponsi- 
ble— while  this  seeks  to  endow  her  by  making  the 
father  more  responsible.  The  whole  verdict  of  the 
ages  is,  as  we  have  seen,  on  the  side  of  this  principle. 
It  has  been  practised  for  aeons,  and  it  is  the  aim  of 
sound  legislation  and  practice  everywhere  to-day. 

As  has  been  admitted,  the  more  we  express  this 
principle,  the  lower  will  fall,  not  necessarily  the  mar- 
riage-rate, but  the  parent-rate;  fewer  men  will  become 
fathers,  but  they  will  be  fitter.  There  will  be  fewer 
children  born,  but  they  will  be  children  planned,  de- 
sired and  loved  in  anticipation,  as  every  child  should 
be,  and  will  be  in  the  golden  future.  These  children 
will  not  die,  but  survive;  nor  will  their  development 
be  injured  by  early  malnutrition  and  neglect.  The 
believer  in  births  as  births  will  not  be  gratified,  but 
there  will  be  abundance  of  gratification  for  the  believer 
in  births  as  means  to  ends. 

The  practical  working-out  of  our  principle  is  no 
more  difficult  than  might  be  expected  if  it  be  remem- 
bered that  we  are  counselling  nothing  revolutionary 
nor  even  novel.  The  demand  simply  is  that  the  prac- 
tice which  obtains  among  the  more  fortunate  classes 
shall  be  made  universal,  and  that  the  State  shall  see 
that  all  fathers  who  can,  do  their  duty.  The  State 
will  be  quite  busy  and  well  employed  in  this  task,  which 


The  Rights  of  Mothers  315 

may  legitimately  be  allotted  to  it  even  on  the  strictly 
individualist  and  Spencerian  principles,  that  the  main- 
tenance of  justice  is  alone  the  State's  province.  We 
allot  a  great  function  to  the  State,  but  deny  that  it  can 
rightly  or  safely  set  the  father  aside  and  perform  his 
duty  for  him. 

The  kind  of  means  whereby  the  rights  of  mothers 
may  be  granted  them  is  indicated  in  the  Women's 
Charter  which  has  lately  been  formulated  and  advo- 
cated by  Lady  Maclaren.  The  principle  there  recog- 
nized is  that  the  husband's  wages  are  not  solely  his 
own  earnings,  but  are  in  part  handed  to  him  to  be 
passed  on  to  his  wife.  Directly  children  are  con- 
cerned, the  State  should  be. 

Whatever  the  answer  to  the  crudely-stated  question, 
"  Should  Wives  have  Wages?  "  it  is  certain  that  moth- 
ers should  and  must  have  wages  or  their  equivalent. 

To  many  of  the  well-wishers  of  women  it  is  disap- 
pointing that  the  Women's  Charter  is  not  more  keenly 
supported  by  women  themselves.  Unfortunately  the 
suffrage  has  become  a  fetish,  the  mere  means  has  be- 
come an  end,  preferred  even  to  the  offer  of  the  real 
ends,  such  as  would  be  attained  in  very  large  measure 
by  this  Charter.  We  see  here,  it  is  to  be  feared,  the 
same  spirit  which  protests  against  the  wisest  and  most 
humane  legislation  in  the  interests  of  women  and  chil- 
dren because  "  men  have  no  business  to  lay  down  the 
law  for  women." 

In  general  terms,  one  would  argue  that  the  principle 
of  insurance  must  be  applied  to  this  case,  as  it  is  now 
voluntarily  applied  by  thousands  of  provident  fathers. 


316  Woman  and  Womanhood 

Here  the  State  may  guarantee  and  help,  even  by  the 
expenditure  of  money.  It  should  help  those  who  help 
themselves.  This  is  a  principle  which  may  apply  to 
many  forms  of  insurance  or  provision,  whether  for  old 
age  or  against  invalidity;  just  as  non-contributory  old- 
age  provisions  are  fundamentally  wrong  in  principle, 
and  have  never  been  defended  on  any  but  party-politi- 
cal grounds  of  expedience,  even  by  their  advocates,  so 
the  "  endowment  of  motherhood  "  which  meant  the 
complete  liberation  of  fatherhood  from  its  responsi- 
bilities would  be  wrong  in  principle.  But  in  both  of 
these  cases  the  State  might  rightly  undertake  to  help 
those  who  help  themselves. 

Fatherhood  of  the  new  order  will  not  be  so  wholly 
irksome  and  unrewarded  as  might  at  first  appear  to 
the  critic  who  does  not  reckon  children  as  rewards 
themselves.  It  may  involve  some  momentary  sacri- 
fices, but  it  needs  very  little  critical  study  of  the  ordi- 
nary man's  expenditure  to  discover  that,  on  the  whole, 
these  sacrifices  will  be  more  apparent  than  real.  It  is, 
for  instance,  a  very  great  sacrifice  indeed  for  the 
smoker  to  give  up  tobacco;  but  once  he  has  done  so, 
he  is  as  happy  as  he  was,  and  suffers  nothing  at  all  for 
the  gain  of  his  pocket.  Both  as  regards  alcohol  and 
tobacco,  the  common  expenditure  which  would  so  am- 
ply provide  milk  and  the  rest  for  children,  is  necessi- 
tated by  an  acquired  habit  which,  like  all  acquired 
habits,  can  be  discarded.  The  non-smoker  and  non- 
drinker  does  not  suffer  the  discomfort  of  the  smoker 
and  drinker  who  is  deprived  of  his  need.  These  things 
cease  to  be  needs  at  all,  soon  after  they  are  dispensed 


The  Rights  of  Mothers  317 

with,  or  if  the  habit  of  taking  them  is  never  begun. 
They  are  luxuries  only  to  those  who  use  them.  To 
those  who  do  not  they  are  nothing,  and  the  lack  of  them 
is  nothing.  The  sheer  waste  they  entail  is  gigantic, 
and  the  expenditure  on  them  in  such  a  country  as  Eng- 
land would  endow  all  its  motherhood  and  provide  good 
conditions  for  all  its  children.  The  father  who,  in  the 
future,  is  compelled  to  yield  the  rights  of  mothers  and 
children,  may  sometimes  be  compelled  to  practise  what 
at  first  looks  like  great  self-restraint  in  these  respects. 
The  point  I  wish  to  make  is  that  the  sacrifice  and  the 
need  for  restraint  are  transient,  and  that  thereafter 
there  is  simply  more  liberty  and  the  promise  of  longer 
life  for  the  wise. 

The  working-out  will  be  that  the  legislation  of  the 
future  will  benefit  the  right  kind  of  husband  and  father, 
but  will  restrain  and  irk  the  wrong  kind.  But  that  is 
precisely  what  good  legislation  should  do.  Thus  the 
right  kind  of  father,  who  in  any  case  will  do  his  best 
to  care  for  his  wife  and  children,  will  be  helped  in  the 
future  by  the  State.  It  will  insist  that  he  does  the 
duty  which  in  any  case  he  means  to  do,  but  it  will  make 
the  doing  easier.  We  see  admirably  working  parallels 
to  this  in  the  German  insurance  laws  and  their  provi- 
sion for  death,  disease  and  old  age.  They  benefit  those 
whom  they  appear  to  harass.  Insurance  against 
fatherhood  will  work  in  the  same  way.  The  State 
will  not  be  antagonistic  to  the  father,  but  will  be  his 
best  friend,  knowing  that  its  best  friends  are  good 
fathers  and  mothers.  There  will  be  far  less  worry 
and  anxiety  for  well-meaning  parents,  especially  for 


318  Woman  and  Womanhood 

mothers,  but  also  for  fathers.  Nor  do  I,  for  one, 
much  mind  how  substantial  may  be  the  State's  contri- 
bution to  the  father's  efforts,  provided  only  that  those 
efforts  are  demanded  and  obtained. 

Nothing  is  more  certain  than  that  we  are  about  to 
free  ourselves  from  the  crass  blindness  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  in  its  great  delusion  that  the  wealth  of 
a  nation  consists  in  the  number  of  things  it  makes  and 
possesses.  Parenthood  and  childhood  will  shortly 
come  to  be  recognized  as  the  first  concern  of  the  State 
that  is  to  continue,  and  whilst  the  birth-rate  continues 
to  fall,  the  honour  paid  to  fathers  and  mothers  will 
continue  to  rise.  We  shall  become  as  wise  in  time 
as  the  Jews  have  been  ever  since  we  have  record  of 
them.  We  shall  estimate  the  relative  value  of  these 
things  as  well  as  if  we  were  the  kinds  of  people  we  call 
"  Savages."  Fatherhood  will  not  be  such  an  uncom- 
pensated  sacrifice  in  those  days,  even  apart  from  its 
inherent  rewards. 

The  point  I  am  trying  to  make  is  that  the  legislation 
and  the  social  changes  here  advocated  as  necessary  in 
the  interests  of  women,  and  indeed  asserted  to  be  their 
rights,  do  not  involve  any  injury  to  men.  This  com- 
mon delusion  is  a  mere  instance  of  the  poisonous  prin- 
ciple of  politicians,  notably  fiscal  politicians,  and  of 
many  business  men.  Their  belief  is  that  what  benefits 
Germany  must  hurt  England,  that  what  hurts  Germany 
must  benefit  England,  that  all  trade  is  a  question  of 
somebody  scoring  off  another  or  being  scored  off. 
The  idea  that  there  are  great  games  in  which  both 
sides  stand  to  win,  if  they  "  play  the  game,"  is  mean- 


The  Rights  oj  Mothers  319 

ingless  to  them.  That  German  prosperity  can  favour 
English  prosperity,  that  true  commerce  is  a  mutual  ex- 
change for  mutual  benefit — these  are  notions  obviously 
absurd  to  people  who  think  on  this  horrible  assump- 
tion which  reigns  unchallenged  in  a  thousand  columns 
of  fiscal  controversy  every  morning.  And  when  these 
people  turn  to  the  question  of  legislation  as  between 
the  sexes,  they  naturally  assume  that  anything  which 
promises  to  benefit  women  will  injure  men.  The  vote 
is  thus  regarded  as  a  means  of  injuring  men — neces- 
sarily, because  it  advantages  women — and  assuredly 
such  people  will  suppose  that  any  measures  in  the  di- 
rection of  granting  what  I  here  prefer  to  call  the 
"  rights  of  mothers  "  (leaving  to  one  side  the  "  rights 
of  women"),  necessarily  involve  a  proportionate  dis- 
advantage to  men.  I  deny  it  utterly: 

The  woman's  cause  is  man's :  they  rise  or  sink 
Together,  dwarfed  or  God-like,  bond  or  free. 

The  rights  of  mothers,  we  have  seen,  are  fundamen- 
tal for  any  society,  and  to  satisfy  them  is  to  meet  the 
most  clearly  primary  of  social  needs.  But  there  will 
be  some  readers  of  this  book,  perhaps,  who  miss  any 
discussion  of  the  u  rights  of  women."  I  do  not  care 
for  the  phrase,  because  I  do  not  think  that  we  often 
see  it  usefully  employed.  For  me  the  propositions  are 
self-evident  that  men  and  women,  being  human  beings, 
have  the  rights  of  human  beings.  Each  of  us  has  the 
right  to  the  conditions  of  the  most  complete  self-devel- 
opment and  expression  that  is  compatible  with  the 
granting  of  the  same  right  to  others.  It  is  true  that 


320  Woman  and  Womanhood 

women  have  been  largely  debarred  from  these  condi- 
tions as  a  sex,  and  in  so  far  there  is  some  meaning  in 
the  phrase  "  Women's  rights."  But  otherwise  we  all 
agree  that  men  and  women  alike  have  the  right  which 
has  just  been  stated  in  terms  that  are  a  paraphrase  of 
Herbert  Spencer's  definition  of  liberty.  Men's  rights 
and  women's  rights  are  the  rights  to  "  life,  liberty  and 
the  pursuit  of  happiness."  If  any  one  disputes  the 
application  of  this  principle  to  women  as  unreservedly 
as  to  men,  I  will  not  argue  with  him.  I  write  for  de- 
cent people. 

At  this  stage  in  the  development  of  civilization,  our 
business  is  to  see,  first,  that  our  social  proceedings  and 
reconstructions  of  enterprises  are  compatible  with  the 
nature  of  the  human  individual,  male  and  female.  It 
is  always  necessary  for  us  to  be  reminded  of  the  facts 
of  the  individual,  for  in  the  last  resort  they  will  deter- 
mine the  failure  or  the  success  of  all  our  schemes. 
And  then  we  must  see  where  our  existing  social  struc- 
ture fails  to  satisfy  the  needs  of  individual  development 
and  of  individual  duty.  In  seeking  to  rectify  what 
may  here  be  wrong,  of  course  we  must  take  first  things 
first — we  must  set  the  case  right  for  the  most  important 
people  before  we  go  on  to  the  others. 

Now  it  is  the  simple,  obvious  truth, — so  obvious  and 
unchallengeable  that  somehow  it  has  never  been  stated 
— that  in  any  human  society  the  parents  are  the  most 
important  people.  The  division  is  not  between  edu- 
cation and  the  lack  of  it,  or  wealth  and  the  lack  of  it, 
or  breeding  and  the  lack  of  it.  It  is  not  the  aristoc- 
racy that  matters  supremely;  nor  the  "  great  middle- 


The  Rights  of  Mothers  321 

class  ";  nor  the  masses;  nor  the  teachers;  nor  the  doc- 
tors; nor  the  servants  of  modern  industrialism.  The 
classification  is  a  biological  one — into  parents  and  non- 
parents.  The  non-parents  may  be  invaluable  in  their 
way,  if  only  they  beget  something  that  is  valuable. 
Heaven  forbid  that  I  should  undervalue  the  children 
of  the  mind.  But  if  we  are  to  classify  any  nation,  the 
first  and  last  classification  of  any  moment  is  none  of 
those  in  which  we  always  indulge  and  which  all  our 
customs  and  traditions  and  prejudices  are  ever  seeking 
to  perpetuate;  but  the  classification  into  those  who 
will  die  childless  and  those  who  create  the  future  race. 
That  is  why,  for  me  at  any  rate,  the  subject  of  women's 
rights  is  jejune  and  sterile  compared  with  the  subject 
of  this  chapter.  First  let  us  ascertain  the  rights  of 
mothers  and  grant  them,  to  the  very  uttermost ;  then  let 
us  do  the  same  for  the  fathers.  Let  us  exact  of  each 
the  corresponding  duties;  and  the  next  generation, 
brought  into  being  under  such  conditions,  will  solve  all 
our  problems.  But  whilst  we  neglect  the  first  things 
we  shall  permanently  solve  no  problem  at  all.  We 
may  seem  to  do  so,  but  if  we  dishonour  parenthood,  if 
we  leave  the  inferior  women  to  mother  the  future,  the 
degenerate  race  that  must  ensue  will  find  itself  in  diffi- 
culties compared  with  which  ours  are  trivial,  and  our 
solutions  of  them  impotent. 

That  is  why  I  seek  to  draw  attention  to  the  rights 
not  of  women  as  women, — for  neither  men  nor  women 
have  any  peculiar  rights  as  men  or  women — nor  yet 
to  the  rights  of  wives  as  wives,  but  to  the  rights  of 
mothers  as  mothers,  whether  married  or  unmarried, 


322  Woman  and  Womanhood 

whether  husbanded  or  widowed.  The  rights  of 
women  are  the  rights  of  human  beings,  and  no  special 
concern  of  a  writer  on  woman  and  womanhood,  para- 
doxical as  the  assertion  may  be.  The  rights  of  wives 
are  often  discussed,  but  I  question  whether  the  discus- 
sion ever  helped  a  wife  yet,  except  solely  in  the  matter 
of  her  monetary  claims  upon  her  husband.  Discussion 
and  public  opinion  and  consequent  legislation  can  ef- 
fect, and  have  effected,  something  for  wives  as  wives 
in  this  matter.  In  other  matters,  much  more  vital  to 
their  happiness,  each  case  is  unique  because  all  indivi- 
duals are  unique;  and  the  discussion  of  the  questions 
can  amount  to  no  more  than  futile  and  obvious  plati- 
tude. 

But  when  motherhood  is  concerned  the  monetary 
question  becomes  worthy  of  the  adjective  economic,  so 
often  prostituted,  for  the  making  of  future  life  depends 
upon  the  provision  of  adequate  means.  The  whole 
essence  of  motherhood  is  that  it  is  a  dedication  of  the 
present  to  the  future.  Every  mother  is  in  the  position 
of  the  inventor  or  the  poet  or  the  musician  for  whose 
work  the  present  makes  no  demand  and  no  payment. 
The  future  is  being  served,  but  the  future  is  not  there 
to  pay.  The  rights  of  mothers  are  the  rights  of , the 
future,  and  its  claims  upon  the  present. 

It  can  be  abundantly  shown  that  increasing  prevision 
or  provision  marks  the  ascent  of  organic  Nature;  that 
as  life  ascends  the  present  is  more  and  more  dedicated 
to  the  future.  The  completeness  of  this  dedication  is 
the  most  exemplary  fact  of  the  many  which  the  bee- 
hive provides  for  our  instruction  and  following.  Con- 


The  Rights  of  Mothers  323 

sider  the  dedication  of  the  hive  to  the  queen.  Realize 
that  she  is  not  in  any  way  the  ruler  of  the  hive,  but  she 
is  the  only  mother  in  it.  She  is  the  parent,  and,  on 
our  principles,  she  is  therefore  the  most  important  per- 
son in  the  hive.  No  one  else  has  any  rights  but  to 
j  serve  her,  for  the  future  absolutely  depends  upon  her. 
So  does  the  future  of  our  society  depend  upon  its 
mothers.  In  our  species  there  are  many  and  not  one, 
as  in  the  bee-hive.  If  there  were  just  one  individual 
who  was  to  be  the  mother  of  the  next  generation,  even 
our  politicians  would  perceive  that  she  was  the  most 
important  person  in  the  community,  and  that  her  rights 
were  supreme.  But  the  principle  stands,  though,  as 
it  happens,,  human  mothers  are  not  one  in  each  genera- 
tion, but  many.  They  are  in  our  society  what  the 
queen  bee  is  in  the  hive,  and  the  future  will  transcend 
the  present  and  the  past  just  in  so  far  as  they  are  well- 
chosen,  and  well  cared  for. 

To  the  best  of  my  belief  this  principle  has  not  yet 
been  recognized  by  any  one.  The  rights  of  women 
and  the  rights  of  wives  are  often  discussed,  but  the 
rights  of  mothers  is  a  term  expressing  a  principle  which 
is  not  to  be  called  new,  only  because  in  the  bee-hive,  for 
instance,  we  see  it  expressed  and  inerrably  served. 

Perhaps  it  may  be  permitted  to  close  with  a  personal 
reminiscence  which,  at  any  rate,  bears  on  the  genesis 
of  this  chapter.  Some  nine  years  ago  when  I  was  resi- 
dent-surgeon to  the  Edinburgh  Maternity  Hospital,  I 
proposed  to  get  up  a  concert  for  the  patients  on  Box- 
ing Day,  and  on  asking  permission  of  the  distinguished 
obstetrician  who  was  in  supreme  charge,  was  met  with 


324  Woman  and  Womanhood 

the  question,  "  Do  they  deserve  it?"  After  several 
seconds  there  slowly  dawned  the  fact  which  I  knew 
but  had  long  forgotten,  that  the  mothers  in  the  large 
ward  where  the  music  was  proposed,  were  all  unmar- 
ried, and  finally  I  answered,  "  I  don't  know."  Nor 
do  I  know  to  this  day,  and  though  the  answer  was 
given  in  weakness  and  in  a  disconcerted  voice,  I  doubt 
whether  any  wiser  one  could  be  framed.  We  all  know 
what  desert  means,  and  merit  and  credit,  until  we  be- 
gin to  think  and  study:  and  we  end  by  discovering  that 
we  do  not  know  what,  in  the  last  analysis,  these  terms 
mean.  But,  at  any  rate,  these  women, — one  of  them, 
I  remember,  was  a  child  of  fourteen — were  mothers, 
and  whatever  favoured  their  convalescence  unques- 
tionably made  for  the  survival  of  their  babies.  It 
might  have  been  argued  that  if  the  patients  did  not 
deserve  music,  they  did  not  deserve  the  air  and  light 
and  food  and  skill  and  kindness  with  which  they  were 
being  restored  to  health.  But  it  is  not  a  question  of 
deserts.  These  women  were  mothers.  If  they  should 
not  have  been,  they  should  not  have  been,  and  if  the 
blame  was  theirs,  they  were  blame-worthy.  But  moth- 
ers they  were,  with  the  duties  of  mothers  to  perform, 
and  therefore  with  the  rights  of  mothers.  They  got 
their  concert  and  were  all  the  better  for  the  remark- 
ably indifferent  music  of  which  it  consisted,  as  such 
concerts  commonly  do;  and  I  am  only  very  sorry  if  any 
of  them  argued  therefrom  that  she  had  nothing  in  the 
past  to  regret. 

But  the  spiritual  attitude  revealed  in  the  question, 
"Do  they  deserve  it?"   is  one  which  must  speedily 


The  Rights  of  .Mothers  325 

go  to  its  own  place.  Let  us  strive  to  dignify  marriage, 
to  educate  the  young  of  both  sexes  for  parenthood,  to 
reduce  illegitimacy,  to  reward  virtue.  But  where 
there  is  motherhood  in  being,  whether  expectant  or 
achieved,  we  have  a  duty  which  is  the  highest  and  most 
sacred  of  all  because  it  is  the  Future  that  we  are  called 
upon  to  serve,  and  upon  us  it  wholly  depends. 

As  Mr.  John  Burns  said  to  our  first  Infant  Mor- 
tality Conference  in  Great  Britain  in  1907,  "  Let  us 
dignify,  purify  and  glorify  motherhood  by  every  means 
in  our  power."  Evidently  this  can  only  be  done 
through  marriage,  which  is  in  its  very  essence  an  insti- 
tution for  the  dignifying  of  motherhood.  But  a  bio- 
logical writer  cannot  distinguish  as  a  theologian  can 
between  legal  and  extra-legal  motherhood.  He  may 
declare  that  motherhood  is  hideously  illegitimate  when 
it  is  forced  upon  a  wife  married  to  an  inebriate  degen- 
erate. He  may  accept  marriage  with  all  his  heart  as 
an  institution  which  for  him  has  natural  sanctions  mil- 
lions of  years  older  than  any  Church  or  State  or  man- 
kind itself.  But  for  him  as  a  student  of  life  all 
motherhood  must  be  guarded  as  such — even  if  it  be 
guarded  in  such  a  fashion  that  it  can  never  recur,  which 
is  our  duty  to  the  feeble-minded  mother. 

If  there  be  any  reader  who  is  unacquainted  with  M. 
Maeterlinck's  "  Life  of  the  Bee,"  let  him  or  her  study 
that  instructive  book.  Let  him  ask  why  the  queen 
is  the  End  of  the  hive,  why  all  is  for  her.  Let 
him  ask  whether  the  natural  law  upon  which  this  de- 
pends— the  law  that  all  individuals  are  mortal — does 
not  apply  to  all  races,  even  our  own,  and  perhaps  he 


326  Woman  and  Womanhood 

will  come  to  agree  that  the  rights  of  mothers  are  the 
oldest  and  deepest  and  most  necessary  of  any  rights 
that  can  be  named. 

And  the  recognition  and  granting  of  them — as  they 
must  necessarily  be  recognized  and  granted  in  every 
living  race  that  depends  upon  motherhood — -is  even 
more  imperative  in  our  case  than  in  any  other,  since 
human  motherhood  makes  more  demands  upon  the  in- 
dividual than  any  other.  By  our  constitution  we  hu- 
man beings  must  devote  more  of  our  energies  to  the 
Future  than  any  other  race.  But  it  is  a  Future  better 
worth  working  for  than  any  of  theirs. 


CHAPTER   XX 

WOMEN   AND    ECONOMICS 

IT  will  be  evident  that  the  writer  of  the  foregoing 
chapter  must  have  something  to  say  on  the  question 
of  women  and  economics,  but  though  what  must  be 
said  seems  to  me  to  be  very  important,  it  can  be  stated 
at  no  great  length. 

If  we  turn  to  the  most  widely-read  and  applauded 
of  the  feminist  books  on  this  subject,  Women  and 
Economics,  by  Charlotte  Perkins  Oilman,  we  are  by 
no  means  encouraged  to  find  it  stated  in  the  first 
chapter  that  woman's  present  economic  inferiority  to 
man  is  not  due  to  "  any  inherent  disability  of  sex." 
Wherever  Mrs.  Oilman  may  be  right,  here  the  biolo- 
gist knows  that  she  is  wrong.  The  argument  has  been 
fully  stated  in  earlier  pages,  and  need  not  here  be  re- 
stated. But  we  shall  not  be  surprised  if  a  premise 
which  denies  any  natural  economic  disadvantage  of 
women  leads  to  more  than  dubious  conclusions. 

Only  a  few  pages  later,  Mrs.  Oilman  refers  to  the 
argument  that  the  economic  dependence  of  women 
upon  their  husbands  is  defensible  on  the  ground  that 
they  perform  the  duties  of  motherhood,  and  the  fol- 
lowing is  her  comment  thereon : 

"  The  claim  of  motherhood  as  a  factor  in  economic  exchange 
is  false  to-day.  But  suppose  it  were  true.  Are  we  willing 

327 


328  Woman  and  Womanhood 

to  hold  this  ground,  even  in  theory?  Are  we  willing  to  con- 
sider motherhood  as  a  business,  a  form  of  commercial  ex- 
change? Are  the  cares  and  duties  of  the  mother,  her  travail 
and  her  love,  commodities  to  be  exchanged  for  bread? 

"  It  is  revolting  so  to  consider  them;  and  if  we  dare  face 
our  own  thoughts,  and  force  them  to  their  logical  conclusion, 
we  shall  see  that  nothing  could  be  more  repugnant  to  human 
feeling,  or  more  socially  and  individually  injurious,  than  to 
make  motherhood  a  trade." 

Surely  this  is  special  pleading  and  not  very  plausible 
at  that.  It  may  be  replied,  "  Is  not  the  labourer 
worthy  of  his  hire?  " — however  noble  the  labour.  If 
we  choose  to  call  society's  or  a  husband's  support  of 
motherhood  "  a  form  of  commercial  exchange,"  It  is 
indeed  "revolting"  so  to  see  it;  let  us  then  look  at 
the  case  as  it  is.  We  applaud  the  "  cares  and  duties 
of  the  mother,  her  travail  and  her  love  " ;  but  the  more 
assiduous  her  maternity,  and  the  more  admirable,  the 
more  certainly  will  she  require  to  be  fed.  If  she  can- 
not simultaneously  feed  her  child  and  forage  for  her- 
self, somebody  must  forage  for  her;  and  to  say  that 
therefore  the  cares  and  duties  of  the  mother,  her  tra- 
vail and  her  love,  become  commodities  to  be  exchanged 
for  bread,  is  simply  to  cloud  a  clear  case  with  ques- 
tion-begging epithets.  Always,  everywhere,  if  mother- 
hood is  to  be  performed  at  its  highest,  the  mother 
must  be  supported.  It  is  not  a  question  of  commer- 
cial exchange,  but  of  obvious  natural  necessity.  The 
foregoing  chapter  with  its  argument  for  the  rights  of 
mothers  as  a  great  and  neglected  social  principle,  may 
be  unsound  throughout,  but  it  will  certainly  not  be  re- 
futed by  sentences  such  as  these. 


Women  and  Economics  329 

Briefly,  Mrs.  Gilman  proposes  to  "  do  away  with 
the  family  kitchen  and  dining-room,  to  transform  all 
domestic  service  from  the  incapable,  hand-to-mouth 
standard  of  untrained  amateurs  to  that  of  professional 
experts,  to  raise  the  work  of  child  nursing  and  rearing 
to  a  scientific  and  skilled  basis,  to  secure  the  self-sup- 
port of  the  wife  and  mother  through  skilled  labour, 
so  that  she  may  be  economically  independent  of  her 
husband." 

But  if  her  child  nursing  and  rearing  are  to  be  scien- 
tific and  skilled,  and  she  is  simultaneously  to  support 
herself  through  skilled  labour,  she  clearly  requires  to 
be  two  women  or  one  woman  in  two  places  at  the  same 
time.  This,  in  effect,  is  what  Mrs.  Gilman  expects. 
We  have  seen  that  Mr.  H.  G.  Wells's  proposed  help 
for  motherhood  consists  in  discharging  fatherhood 
from  its  duties :  Mrs.  Gilman's  idea  is  to  double  the 
mother's  work.  Both  come  to  much  the  same  thing. 

All  women,  mothers  or  other,  are  to  become  eco- 
nomically independent,  instead  of  being  "  parasitic  on 
the  male,"  our  author's  unpleasing  way  of  recognizing 
that  fatherhood  has  reached  high  and  responsible  es- 
tate amongst  mankind.  Now  if  Mrs.  Gilman's  solu- 
tion be  feasible,  we  must  return  to  our  fundamentals 
and  see  whether  they  are  compatible  with  it.  She  has 
no  doubt  of  it.  Thus:— 

"  If  it  could  be  shown  that  the  women  of  to-day  were  grow- 
ing beards,  were  changing  as  to  pelvic  bones,  were  developing 
bass  voices,  or  that  in  their  new  activities  they  were  manifest- 
ing the  destructive  energy,  the  brutal  combative  instinct,  or  the 
intense  sex-vanity  of  the  male,  then  there  would  be  cause  for 
alarm.  But  the  one  thing  that  has  been  shown  in  what  study 


33°  Woman  and  Womanhood 

we  have  been  able  to  make  of  women  in  industry  is  that  they 
are  women  still,  and  this  seems  to  be  a  surprise  to  many 
worthy  souls.  .  .  .  '  the  new  woman  '  will  be  no  less  female 
than  the  '  old '  woman.  .  .  .  she  will  be,  with  it  all,  more 
feminine. 

"  The  more  freely  the  human  mother  mingles  in  the  natural 
industries  of  a  human  creature,  as  in  the  case  of  the  savage 
woman,  the  peasant  woman,  the  working-woman  everywhere 
who  is  not  overworked,  the  more  rightly  she  fulfils  these 
functions."  * 

We  may  not  be  so  sure  that  there  is  not  some 
evidence  for  "  growing  beards,"  "  developing  bass 
voices,"  and  "  manifesting  the  destructive  energy,  the 
brutal  combative  instinct,  or  the  intense  sex-vanity  of 
the  male  " ;  and  in  our  brief  attempt  to  make  a  first 
study  of  womanhood  in  the  light  of  Mendelism,  we 
have  seen  good  reason  to  understand  why  masculine 
characters  may  come  to  the  surface  in  the  female 
whose  femininity  has  worn  thin.  Several  of  the  lower 
animals  definitely  show  us  the  possibilities. 

But  we  need  not  accept  the  issue  on  the  grounds  of 
such  superficial  manifestations  as  these,  for  there  are 
others,  more  subtle  and  vastly  more  important,  on 
which  must  be  fought  the  question  whether  women  in 
industry  are  women  still,  and  whether  the  "  new 
woman  "  is  more  feminine  than  the  old.  Let  us  dis- 
miss the  extremes  in  both  directions.  We  need  not  ad- 
duce the  members  of  the  Pioneer  Club,  who  show  their 
increasing  femininity  by  donning  male  attire;  nor  need 
we  question  that  large  numbers  of  women  in  industry 

*  "  The  primal  physical  functions  of  maternity." 


Women  and  Economics  331 

continue  to  remain  feminine  still.  The  practical  ques- 
tion which  we  must  determine,  if  possible,  is  the  aver- 
age effect  of  industrial  conditions  and  the  assumption 
of  the  functions  commonly  supposed  to  be  more  suit- 
ably masculine,  upon  women  in  general.  Here  we  defi- 
nitely join  issue  with  Mrs.  Oilman. 

It  is  impossible  to  discuss,  as  we  might  well  do, 
the  available  evidence  as  to  the  effect  of  external  ac- 
tivities upon  that  wonderful  function  of  womanhood 
which,  in  its  correspondence  with  the  rhythm  of  the 
tides,  hints,  like  many  other  of  our  attributes,  at  our 
distant  origin  in  the  Sea — the  mother  of  all  living. 
Reference  was  made  in  an  earlier  chapter  to  this  func- 
tion, and  its  use  as,  in  most  cases  at  any  rate,  a  cri- 
terion of  womanhood  and  a  gauge  of  the  effect  of 
physical  exercise  or  mental  exercise  thereupon.  The 
writer  of  u  Women  and  Economics  "  has  nothing  to 
say  on  this  subject — less,  if  possible,  than  on  the  sub- 
ject of  lactation.  The  menstrual  function  would  ad- 
mirably and  fundamentally  illustrate  the  present  con- 
tention, but  it  will  be  better  to  take  the  great  maternal 
and  mammalian  function  of  nursing  as  a  criterion  of 
womanhood,  and  as  a  test  of  the  contention  that  the 
more  freely  the  mother  works  as  do  the  savage  woman 
and  the  peasant  woman,  the  more  rightly  she  fulfils  the 
"  primal  physical  functions  of  maternity." 

Before  we  consider  the  actual  evidence  (and  Mrs. 
Oilman  does  not  deal  at  all  in  evidence  on  these  fun- 
damentals to  her  argument)  let  us  meet  the  argument 
about  the  u  savage  woman,"  who  works  as  hard  as 
men  do, — though  much  less  hard  than  early  observers 


332  Woman  and  Womanhood 

of  savage  life  supposed — and  who  is  nevertheless  a 
successful  mother.  It  is  completely  forgotten  that, 
just  as  parenthood,  both  fatherhood  and  motherhood, 
demands  more  of  the  individual  as  we  rise  in  the  scale 
of  animal  evolution,  so,  within  our  own  species,  the 
same  holds  good.  In  general,  the  mothers  of  civilized 
races  are  the  mothers  of  babies  whose  heads  are  larger 
at  birth  (as  they  will  be  in  adult  life),  than  those  of 
savage  babies.  It  is  true  that  the  civilized  woman 
has,  on  the  average,  a  considerably  larger  pelvis  than 
that  of,  for  instance,  the  negress.  There  must  be  a 
feasible,  practicable  ratio  between  the  two  sets  of  meas- 
urements if  babies  are  to  enter  the  world  at  all.  But 
the  increasing  size  of  the  human  head  is  a  great  prac- 
tical problem  for  women.  No  one  can  say  how  many 
millions  have  perished  in  the  past  because  their  pelves 
were  too  narrow  for  the  increasing  demands  thus  made 
upon  them,  and  doubtless  the  greater  capacity  of  the 
female  pelvis  in  higher  races  is  mainly  due  to  this  ter- 
rible but  racially  beneficent  process  of  selection,  by 
which  women  with  pelves  nearer  (e.  g.)  to  negro  type, 
have  been  rejected,  and  women  with  wider  pelves  have 
survived,  to  transmit  their  breadth  of  pelvis  to  their 
daughters  and  carry  on  the  larger-headed  races.  But 
even  now  obstetricians  are  well  aware  that  the  prac- 
tical mechanical  problem  for  the  civilized  woman  is 
much  more  serious  than  for  her  savage  sister;  and  the 
argument  that  civilized  women  would  discharge  ma- 
ternal functions  as  well  as  savage  women  if  they 
worked  as  hard  is  therefore  worthless. 

Let  us  return  now  to  the  question  of  nursing  capac- 


Women  and  Economics  333 

ity.  "  Bass  voices  "  and  "  beards  "  are  doubtless  un- 
lovely in  woman,  but  their  extensive  appearance  would 
be  of  no  consequence  at  all  compared  with  the  disap- 
pearance or  weakening  of  the  mammalian  function 
which,  as  everyone  knows  or  should  know,  is  the  domi- 
nating factor  in  the  survival  or  death  of  infancy. 
Now  it  may  be  briefly  asserted  that  civilized  woman, 
and  more  especially  industrial  woman,  threatens  to 
cease  to  be  a  mammal.  If  this  assertion  can  be  sub- 
stantiated, and  if  the  "  economic  independence  of 
women  "  necessarily  involves  it,  no  biologist,  no  med- 
ical man,  no  first-hand  student  of  life,  will  hesitate 
to  condemn  finally  the  ideal  toward  which  Mrs.  Gil- 
man  and  those  who  think  with  her  would  have  us  go. 
Things  may  be  bad,  things  are  very  bad:  the  lot  of 
woman  must  be  raised  immensely,  because  the  race 
must  be  raised,  and  cannot  be  raised  otherwise;  but 
progress  is  going  forward  and  not  backward,  Mr. 
Chesterton  notwithstanding.  Woman  will  not  become 
more  than  a  mammal  by  becoming  less,  and  going  back 
on  that  great  achievement  of  ascending  life.  Indi- 
viduals may  do  so,  and  are  doing  so,  lamentably  mis- 
directed as  many  of  them  now  are;  but  that  is  the  end 
of  them  and  their  kind.  It  is  quite  easy  to  stamp  out 
motherhood  and  its  inevitable  economic  dependence, 
but  with  it  you  stamp  out  the  future. 

It  is  generally  admitted  that  our  women  nurse  their 
babies  less  than  they  used  to  do.  It  is  as  generally 
admitted  that  this  is  often  deliberate  choice,  and  we 
all  know  that  it  is  often  economic  necessity:  the  human 
mother  u  mingles  in  the  natural  industries  of  a  human 


334  Woman  and  Womanhood 

creature,"  such  as  the  factory  affords,  and  cannot  si- 
multaneously stay  at  home  to  nurse  her  baby,  making 
men — for  which,  as  a  u  natural  industry  "  of  women, 
even  as  against  making,  say,  lead-glaze  for  china, 
there  may  be  something  to  be  said. 

But  whilst  popular  preachers  and  castigators  of  the 
sins  of  society  fulminate  against  the  fine  lady  who  asks 
for  belladonna  and  refuses  to  do  her  duty,  we  must 
enquire  to  what  extent,  if  any,  women  no  longer  nurse 
their  babies  because  they  cannot,  try  they  never  so 
patiently  and  strenuously.  It  is  the  general  belief 
amongst  those  whose  daily  work  qualifies  them  for  an 
opinion,  that  women  are  tending  to  lose  the  power  of 
nursing.  Professor  von  Bunge,  whose  name  is  hon- 
oured by  all  students  of  the  action  of  drugs,  has  sat- 
isfied himself  that  alcoholism  in  the  father  is  a  great 
cause  of  incapacity  to  nurse  in  daughters.  However 
that  interpretation  may  be,  the  fact  seems  clear;  and 
the  change  in  this  direction  is  evidently  much  more 
rapid  than  might  be  accounted  for  by  the  improvement 
in  artificial  feeding  of  infants  leading  to  the  survival 
of  daughters  of  mothers  unable  to  nurse,  and  trans- 
mitting their  inability  to  their  children.  Mrs.  Gilman 
— having  ignored  menstruation  altogether — makes 
only  one  allusion  to  this  vastly  important  subject,  and 
we  shall  see  to  what  extent  her  sanguine  assumption 
is  justified.  According  to  her,  "  A  healthy,  happy, 
rightly  occupied  motherhood  should  be  able  to  keep  up 
this  function  (of  nursing)  longer  than  is  now  custom- 
ary— to  the  child's  great  gain."  There  can  be  no 
question  about  the  child's  great  gain;  but  what  is  the 


Women  and  Economics  335 

evidence  for  supposing  that  a  mother  earning  her  own 
living  in  free  competition  with  men — which  is  what  a 
"  healthy,  happy,  rightly  occupied  motherhood  "  means 
in  this  connection — can  thus  spend  her  energies  twice 
over,  unlike  any  other  source  of  energy  known? 

According  to  official  statistics,  maternal  lactation  is 
steadily  decreasing  in  several  German  cities,  notably 
in  Berlin,  where  only  56.2  per  cent,  of  infants  under 
one  month  were  suckled  by  their  mothers  in  1905,  as 
against  65.6  per  cent,  in  1895,  and  74.3  per  cent,  in 
1885.  At  nine  months  of  age  22.4  per  cent,  were 
suckled  in  1905,  34.6  per  cent,  in  1895,  49  per  cent, 
in  1885.  Other  towns  show  more  favourable  re- 
sults; a  general  decrease,  however,  is  marked.  These 
facts  cannot  be  ascribed,  according  to  the  author,*  to 
a  growing  disinclination  to  breast-feeding,  nor  to  the 
employment  of  mothers  (in  Prussia  only  5  per  cent,  of 
the  married  women  are  employed  in  manufacture). 
The  question  whether  the  decrease  in  breast-feeding 
is  due  to  the  industrial  employment  of  women  before 
marriage,  or  to  (inherited)  degeneration,  remains  to 
be  determined. 

According  to  a  recent  statement  by  Professor  von 
Bunge,  the  conditions  are  very  similar  now  in  Switzer- 
land, where  only  about  one  mother  in  five  can  nurse 
her  children. 

Similar  evidence  could  be  cited  from  other  sources, 
and  the  fact  being  admitted  must  evidently  be  reck- 
oned with. 

*  W.  Claassen  in  the  Archiv  fur  Rassen-und-Gesellschafts-Biologie,  Nov. — Dec., 
1909.  Sec  the  Eugenics  Review,  July,  19:10,  p.  154. 


336  Woman  and  Womanhood 

That  the  modern  development  of  infant  feeding  will 
serve  to  replace  natural  lactation,  must  be  denied,  and 
this  without  prejudice  to  the  magnificent  work  of  the 
late  Professor  Budin  of  Paris  and  Professor  Morgan 
Rotch  of  Harvard.  These  'pioneers  and  their  follow- 
ers have  devised  some  admirable  second  bests — ad- 
mirable, that  is,  relatively  to  some  of  the  pitiable 
methods  which  they  have  superseded,  but  relatively  to 
the  mother's  breast  not  admirable  at  all.  At  the  be- 
ginning of  the  campaign  against  infant  mortality,  the 
creche  and  the  sterilized  milk  depot  and  the  frac- 
tional analysis  of  cow's  milk  and  its  recomposition  in 
suitable  proportions  of  proteid,  fat,  etc.,  as  devised 
by  Rotch,  were  rightly  acclaimed  and  admitted  to  save 
vast  numbers  of  infant  lives.  All  this  is  mere  stop- 
gap, wonderfully  effective,  no  doubt,  but  only  stop-gap 
nevertheless.  In  France  they  are  going  ahead,  and 
public  opinion  in  London  is  being  slowly  persuaded  to 
follow  along  the  more  recent  French  lines.  The  mod- 
ern principle  upon  which  we  should  act  is  Nature's 
principle — saving  the  children  through  their  mothers. 
Expectant  motherhood  must  be  taken  care  of;  we  must 
feed,  not  the  child,  but  the  nursing  mother,  and  the 
child  through  her.  If  we  rightly  take  care  of  her,  she 
will  construct  a  perfect  food  for  the  child.  There  is 
no  other  path  of  racial  safety.  It  is  not  our  present 
concern  to  deal  with  the  problems  of  infancy  and  child- 
hood as  they  require,  and  surely  we  need  not  wait  to 
prove  that  nursing  motherhood  cannot  safely  be  super- 
seded, but  must  be  retained  and  safeguarded. 

If  this  postulate  be  granted,  we  have  to  determine 
how  it  comes  about  that  the  German  figures,  for  in- 


Women  and  Economics  337 

stance,  are  showing  this  extraordinarily  rapid  decline 
in  maternal  lactation.  As  has  already  been  noted  in 
passing,  we  must  reject  the  suggestion  that  the  natural 
type  of  women  is  changing.  Such  a  change  of  natural 
type  in  any  living  race  can  occur  only  through  selection 
for  parenthood,  and  such  selection  in  the  case  in  ques- 
tion can  scarcely  be  imagined  to  occur  in  the  direction 
of  choosing  women  who  are  naturally  less  capable  of 
nursing.  On  the  contrary,  the  tendency  of  the  selec- 
tive principle  must  always  be  toward  the  greater  sur- 
vival of  infants  whose  mothers  can  nurse  them,  and 
who  in  their  turn,  if  they  are  to  be  women,  will  be  more 
likely  to  be  able  to  nurse  their  children.  Further,  the 
action  of  selection  cannot  demonstrate  itself  more 
quickly  than  is  permitted  by  the  length  of  human  gen- 
erations. It  must  therefore  be  rejected  as  any  inter- 
pretation of  this  case.  If  women  are  ceasing  to  be 
able  to  nurse  their  babies,  and  if  this  change  is  occur- 
ring with  such  extraordinary  rapidity  as  the  German 
figures  indicate,  plainly  the  explanation  must  be  found 
in  the  action  of  some  recent  and  novel  condition  or  con- 
ditions upon  womanhood. 

Perhaps  it  need  scarcely  be  insisted  that  the  distinc- 
tion here  sought  to  be  made  is  of  the  utmost  impor- 
tance. If  the  natural  type  of  womanhood  were  actu- 
ally changing,  we  could  scarcely  do  more  than  observe 
and  despair,  but  if  it  be  merely  that  the  capacities  of 
this  generation  of  women  are  being  modified  by  the 
particular  conditions  to  which  they  are  subjected, 
plainly  we  who  have  made  those  conditions  can  modify 
them — "  What  man  has  made,  man  can  destroy." 

If  we  come  to  ask  ourselves  what  these  recent  and 


338  Woman  and  Womanhood 

novel  conditions  are,  the  answer  is  only  too  ready  at 
hand.  The  principles  which  will  guide  us  toward  dis- 
covering it  have  been  set  forth  at  length  in  the  earlier 
chapters  of  this  book.  Let  us  recur  to  our  Geddes 
and  Thomson,  and  at  once  we  have  the  key.  The  pro- 
duction of  milk  is  an  act  of  anabolism  or  building-up, 
such  as  we  have  seen  to  be  characteristic  of  the  female 
sex,  involving  the  accumulation  and  storage  of  quanti- 
ties of  energy  so  large  that  if  they  were  stated  in  the 
units  of  the  physicist  they  would  astonish  us.  If  we 
consider  what  the  child  achieves  in  the  way  of  move- 
ment and  development  and  growth,  and  if  we  realize 
that  at  the  most  rapid  period  of  development  and 
growth,  all  the  energy  therefor  has  been  gathered,  pre- 
pared, and  is  dispensed  by  the  nursing  mother,  we  shall 
begin  to  realize  what  an  astonishing  feat  that  is  which 
she  performs.  It  is  in  reality,  of  course,  the  same  feat 
which  is  performed  by  the  expectant  mother,  only  that 
it  is  slightly  less  arduous,  since  after  birth  the  child  can 
breathe  and  digest  for  itself. 

Perhaps  the  reader  will  begin  to  realize  what  Mrs. 
Gilman  and  those  who  think  with  her  are  asking  us  to 
believe  when  they  say  that  the  primal  physical  functions 
of  maternity  will  be  best  fulfilled  by  the  mother  who 
"  mingles  in  the  natural  industries  of  a  human  crea- 
ture." This  statement  is  either  ridiculously  false  or 
can  be  rendered  true  by  rendering  it  as  a  truism.  The 
primal  physical  functions  of  maternity  are  the  natural 
industries  of  the  particular  human  creature  we  call  a 
mother;  and  the  better  she  fulfils  them,  the  better  she 
fulfils  them,  certainly.  But  the  so-called  natural  in- 


Women  and  Economics  339 

dustries  in  which  the  modern  mother  is  desired  to  be 
engaged  whilst  she  is  bearing  or  nursing  her  children 
are  as  unnatural  as  anything  can  be.  As  at  present 
practised,  they  are  morbid  products  of  civilization 
which  it  will  require  to  cast  off  if  it  is  to  survive. 

It  is  the  student  of  life  and  its  laws  who  must  have 
the  last  word  in  these  matters.  If  he  utters  it  wrongly 
or  is  unheeded,  Nature  is  not  mocked,  but  will  be 
avenged.  The  writer  who  can  lay  down  a  new  princi- 
ple on  which  our  life  is  to  be  based,  without  paying  any 
more  attention  to  lactation  than  is  to  be  found  in  the 
argument  we  have  been  considering,  has  left  out  the 
beginning,  has  omitted  the  foundations.  No  measure 
of  earnestness  or  literary  skill  can  save  her  case. 

Of  course  the  reply  will  be  that  the  biological  criti- 
cism is  simply  the  ancient  and  oriental  idea  of  woman 
as  a  helpless  dependent,  reasserted  for  male  advantage 
in  our  own  day.  One  cannot  believe  that  it  is  neces- 
sary to  rebut  that  accusation.  It  is  necessary,  how- 
ever, to  examine  somewhat  the  words  "  economic  de- 
pendence "  and  "  economic  independence  "  which  are 
employed  with  such  naive  antithesis  in  this  contro- 
versy. 

When  we  examine  Mrs.  Oilman's  proposal  for  the 
salvation  of  woman,  we  find  it  to  mean  that  in  future 
mothers  are  to  do  double  work.  The  glorious  con- 
summation is  to  be  that  woman  is  no  longer  "  para- 
sitic on  the  male,"  which  is  Mrs.  Oilman's  way  of  ex- 
pressing the  great  truth  that  the  mother  for  whom  the 
father  works,  represents  the  future  supported  by  the 
present. 


34°  Woman  and  Womanhood 

But  the  future  is  always  supported  by  the  present. 
Woman,  we  began  by  saying,  is  Nature's  supreme  or- 
gan of  the  future,  and  the  present  must  live  for  her  and 
die  for  her.  When  we  say  the  future,  we  mean  child- 
hood. If  childhood  is  to  appear  and  to  survive, 
womanhood  must  be  dedicated  to  it,  and  manhood, 
which  stands  for  the  present,  must  supply  its  own  link 
in  the  chain.  The  following  paragraph  from  an  un- 
signed article  which  appeared  some  years  ago  in  the 
Morning  Post  states  the  case  in  a  form  which  may 
convince  the  reader.  It  was  headed  "  Repairs  and 
Renewals  of  the  People,"  and  ran  as  follows : — 

"  It  is,  indeed,  seldom  sufficiently  realized  how  much  a  na- 
tion, so  to  speak,  lives  always  in  and  for  the  future.  Broadly 
speaking,  of  every  ten  persons  living  in  the  United  Kingdom 
now,  four  are  less  than  twenty  years  of  age,  while  three  of 
the  rest  are  women  (two  of  them  married  women) — that  is  to 
say,  people  also  mainly  concerned,  through  the  care  of  chil- 
dren, with  the  future  rather  than  with  the  present.  Upon  the 
remaining  three  men,  one  of  whom  be  it  noted  is  over  fifty- 
five,  falls  the  bulk  of  the  work  of  providing  for  immediate 
needs  and  so  releasing  the  others  to  provide  for  the  continu- 
ance of  the  race.  A  definite  large  share  of  all  the  present 
activities  of  a  people  is  required  and,  as  it  were,  pledged  to 
provide  for  its  renewal.  If  it  fails  to  allow  sufficient,  it  may, 
just  like  a  company  or  a  municipal  concern  with  an  inadequate 
depreciation  fund,  show  large  profits  and  great  prosperity  for 
a  time ;  it  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  sound  concern." 

The  reader  must  decide  whether  there  is  more  light 
and  leading  in  the  interpretation  that  upon  men  falls 
the  bulk  of  the  work  of  providing  for  immediate  needs, 


Women  and  Economics  341 

and  so  enabling  women  to  provide  for  the  continuance 
of  the  race,  or,  in  Mrs.  Oilman's  version  that  woman 
is  parasitic  upon  the  male.  The  future,  if  she  likes 
to  state  it  in  that  way,  is  parasitic  upon  the  present, 
always  has  been  and  always  will  be.  The  case  which 
she  imagines  to  be  unique  and  morbid,  peculiar  to  civ- 
ilized mankind,  is  precisely  the  case  of  the  hen  bird 
who  sits  upon  her  eggs,  incubating  the  future,  whilst 
the  male  goes  and  forages  for  her.  She  is  parasitic 
upon  the  male,  as  Mrs.  Oilman  would  put  it. 

The  truth  is  that,  like  many  other  women  domi- 
nated by  sex  antagonism — which  glares  ferociously 
from  such  paragraphs  as  that  which  was  quoted  re- 
garding "  the  brutal  combative  instinct  or  the  intense 
sex-vanity  of  the  male  " — Mrs.  Oilman,  in  seeking  to 
further  the  interests  of  her  sex,  proposes  to  dispense 
with  the  help  of  its  best  friend,  which  is  the  other  sex. 
It  is  not  easy  to  speak  with  patience  of  those  who 
thus  seek  to  set  the  house  of  mankind  against  itself, 
to  the  injury  of  men,  women  and  children  alike. 

No  doubt  it  is  true  that  Mrs.  Oilman's  attitude  is 
engendered  by  sex  antagonism  as  we  see  it  everywhere 
in  men — though  for  some  obscure  reason  it  is  only  so 
labelled  when  displayed  by  women.  No  doubt,  also, 
a  much  better  case  can  be  made  out  for  Mrs.  Oilman's 
proposals,  up  to  a  point,  than  could  be  made  out  for 
corresponding  proposals  on  the  other  side.  No  one 
who  thinks  for  a  moment  can  question  that  all  pro- 
posals whatsoever  to  make  either  sex  independent  of 
the  other  are  stark  madness;  yet  there  is  a  certain 
short-lived  plausibility  in  the  argument  that  women  are 


342  Woman  and  Womanhood 

to  be  independent  of  men,  and  this  depends  upon  the 
fact  which  we  have  already  attempted  to  demonstrate 
and  interpret  by  means  of  Mendelism,  that  women  are 
more  than  men,  and  that  womanhood  includes  latent 
manhood.  If,  therefore,  we  are  careful  with  the  ar- 
gument and  boldly  rush  past  the  really  crucial  places, 
such  as  the  conditions  and  needs  of  expectant  and  mars- 
hy motherhood,  we  can  make  out  what  looks  like  a 
case  for  the  economic  dependence  of  women.  Each 
sex  is  to  work  for  itself,  and  then  there  need  be  no 
more  quarrelling. 

But  wre  could  not  go  even  so  far  with  any  theory  for 
making  men  independent  of  women  without  seeing  that 
we  were  no  less  wrong  on  that  side  than  Mrs.  Oilman 
is  on  the  other.  Man's  apparent  economic  independ- 
ence of  women  is  as  complete  a  myth  as  women's  pro- 
jected economic  independence  of  men.  In  the  last  re- 
sort, when  we  come  down  to  realities,  and  remember 
that  both  men  and  women  are  mortal,  and  that  unless 
they  are  replaced,  everything  ends,  we  see  that  the  in- 
troduction of  the  word  economic  into  this  question 
simply  serves  to  confuse  thought,  just  as  the  older  po- 
litical economy  confused  thought  and  laid  itself  open 
to  the  mercilessly  magnificent  attacks  of  Ruskin. 
Economy  is  literally  the  law  of  the  house  or  the  home 
— where  life  begins.  Of  all  economies,  life  is  the  last 
judge,  because  there  is  no  wealth  but  life.  In  the  last 
resort  the  economic  dependence  of  the  sexes  means 
nothing  because  the  sexes  cannot  independently  repro- 
duce themselves. 

If  Mrs.  Oilman  is  to  be  arraigned  for  her  error  let 


Women  and  Economics  343 

us  see  to  it  most  carefully  that  we  do  not  fail  to  arraign 
the  men  who,  with  not  one-thousandth  part  of  her  ex- 
cuse and  with  no  iota  of  her  ability,  fall  into  the  cor- 
responding error  on  their  side.  When  Women's  Suf- 
frage is  being  debated,  there  never  fails  a  supply  of 
men  who  write  to  the  papers  to  say  that  men  must  vote 
and  not  women  because  men  and  not  women  "  made 
the  State."  How  much  simpler  our  problems  would 
be  if  there  were  some  means  of  distinguishing  children 
who  will  grow  up  into  men  of  this  type,  and  carefully 
refraining  from  teaching  them  to  read  or  write! 
Make  the  State,  indeed! — they  can  make  nothing  but 
fools  of  themselves,  and  without  women's  assistance 
could  not  even  reproduce  their  folly.  Of  course  the 
retort  to  all  this  nonsense  is  that  neither  sex  ever  yet 
created  anything  without  the  other.  Every  human  act 
and  achievement  is  the  product  of  both  sexes.  When 
some  friend  of  the  past  assures  us  that  women  should 
not  vote  because  they  cannot  bear  arms,  he  is  of  course 
reminded  that  women  bear  the  soldiers.  It  is  true  and 
it  is  unanswerable.  In  just  the  same  way,  when  Mrs. 
Gilman  wishes  women  to  be  economically  independent 
of  men,  whom  she  considers  as  animals  distinguished 
by  their  destructive  energy,  brutality  and  intense  sex 
vanity,  she  is  simply  ignoring  half  the  truth.  Let 
either  sex  try  to  run  the  earth  alone  till  Halley's  comet 
returns,  and  what  would  be  left  for  it  to  see?  Of  all 
follies  uttered  on  this  subject,  and  they  are  many,  the 
cry,  each  sex  for  itself,  is  the  wickedest  and  worst. 

The  reader  may  well  declare  that  such  criticism  is 
easy,  but  of  little  worth  unless  it  be  accompanied  by 


344  Woman  and  Womanhood 

some  kind  of  constructive  proposals  for  the  ameliora- 
tion of  present  conditions.  Nothing  is  destroyed  un- 
til it  is  replaced.  If  the  present  economic  conditions 
of  women  involve  the  most  hideous  wickedness  and 
cruelty  and  injure  the  entire  progress  of  mankind,  as 
they  assuredly  do,  and  if  they  therefore  must  be  de- 
stroyed, we  must  have  something  to  replace  them  with ; 
and  if  Mrs.  Oilman's  proposals  would  simply  make  the 
difficulty  a  thousand  times  worse  by  depriving  women 
of  men's  help,  what  proposals  are  there  to  offer  in- 
stead? 

The  reply  is  that  we  must  go  back  to  first  principles. 
We  must  drop  all  our  phrases  about  economic  inde- 
pendence or  dependence.  They  have  urgent  and  real 
meanings  for  each  one  of  us  at  any  given  time,  but 
when  applied  to  the  problems  of  the  reconstruction  of 
society  as  a  whole,  they  mean  nothing  because  they  are 
based  upon  no  vital  truths  whatever.  A  man  may  be 
economically  secure  when  he  is  producing  absinthe  or 
whisky,  or  he  may  die  of  starvation  because  he  is  pro- 
ducing the  songs  of  Schubert.  Economic  independence 
and  dependence  mean  very  much  to  the  prosperous  dis- 
tiller whom  men  pay  for  poison,  and  to  the  immortal 
composer  whom  men  do  not  pay  at  all,  but  who  yet 
produces  that  which  nourishes  the  life  of  all  the  future. 
The  maker  of  death  may  live,  and  the  maker  of  life 
may  die;  we  see  it  every  day  and  history  is  the  continu- 
ous record  of  it.  These  economic  dependences  and  in- 
dependences consist  only  in  the  relations  of  one  man  or 
woman  to  the  others.  They  have  nothing  to  do  with 
the  real  issue,  \yhich  is  the  relation  of  mankind  as  a 


Women  and  Economics  345 

whole  to  Nature.  These  economic  questions  are  simply 
concerned  with  money — the  means  whereby  one  man 
has  more  or  less  claim  upon  another:  society  may  have 
to  be  reconstructed  in  such  a  fashion  that  economic  in- 
dependence and  dependence,  as  at  present  understood, 
would  have  no  meaning  whatever.  Yet  all  the  real 
economic  questions  would  remain,  even  though  money 
or  private  property  were  abolished.  The  real  econ- 
omy is  the  making  and  preserving  of  life  and  the  means 
of  life.  We  live  in  a  chaos  where  the  elementary  con- 
ditions of  human  existence  are  constantly  forgotten. 
The  real  politics,  the  real  economy,  the  real  political 
economy,  are  the  questions  of  the  birth-rate  and  the 
wheat  supply — the  relations  not  between  man  and  man, 
or  class  and  class,  or  sex  and  sex,  but  mankind,  living 
and  dying  and  being  born,  and  the  world  in  which  he 
has  to  live.  The  time  is  near  at  hand  when  the  first 
conditions  of  national  life  will  be  recognized  as  they 
have  never  been  since  the  dawn  of  modern  industrial- 
ism. The  products  of  men's  labour  and  women's  la- 
bour will  be  appraised  and  paid  for  in  proportion  to 
their  real  value,  their  strength  or  availableness  for  life. 
In  "  Unto  This  Last  "  and  "  Munera  Pulveris," 
Ruskin  has  laid  down,  on  what  are  really  unchallenge- 
able biological  grounds,  the  foundations  of  the  politi- 
cal economy  of  the  future.  We  are  going  to  have 
done  with  the  industries  which  eat  up  men.  We  can- 
not much  longer  afford  to  grow  whisky  where  we  might 
grow  wheat,  for  there  are  ever  more  mouths  to  be  fed, 
and  wheat  is  running  short.  Cheap  and  dear  mean 
nothing  when  we  get  down  to  realities.  Is  a  thing 


346  Woman  and  Womanhood 

vital  or  is  it  mortal? — that  is  the  only  question.  It 
may  be  vital  and  costless,  like  air,  or  mortal  and  dear, 
like  alcohol.  The  question  is  not  how  much  money 
can  you  get  from  another  man  for  your  product,  but 
how  much  life  can  mankind  get  from  Nature  for  it. 
Thus  we  shall  return  to  a  sane  appreciation  of  the  pri- 
mary importance  of  agriculture  as  against  manufacture, 
of  food  as  against  anything  else, — for  unless  one  is 
fed,  of  what  use  is  anything  else?  And  as  nations 
gradually  begin  to  discover  that  the  means  of  life  are 
the  really  valuable  things,  they  will  go  on  to  learn,  what 
primitive  races,  hard-pressed  races,  races  making  their 
way  in  the  world  against  heavy  odds,  have  always 
known — that  at  all  costs  the  insatiable  destructiveness 
of  Death  must  be  compensated  for  by  Birth.  If  the 
means  of  life  are  the  real  wealth,  the  life  itself  is  more 
real  still,  and  unless  we  abolish  death,  the  makers  and 
bearers  and  nourishers  of  life  are  at  all  times  and 
everywhere  the  producers,  the  manufacturers,  the 
workers  of  the  community  above  and  beyond  all  others. 
And  these  are  the  women  in  their  great  functions  as 
mothers  and  foster-mothers,  nurses,  teachers. 

The  economics  of  the  future  will  be  based  upon  these 
elemental  and  perdurable  truths.  No  writer  in  his 
senses  will  then  be  guilty  of  such  immeasurable  folly 
as  to  place  the  "  natural  industries  of  a  human  crea- 
ture "  in  antithesis  to  "  the  primal  physical  functions 
of  maternity."  The  sex  which  came  first  and  remains 
first  in  the  immediacy  and  indispensableness  of  its  re- 
lations to  the  coming  life  will  base  its  economic  claims 
— in  the  vulgar  and  narrow  sense  of  that  term — upon 


Women  and  Economics  347 

the  worth  of  those  relations.  The  society  which  can- 
not afford  to  pay  for — that  is,  to  sustain — the  charac- 
teristic functions  of  womanhood,  cannot  continue;  and 
societies  have  continued  and  will  continue  in  propor- 
tion as  they  hold  hard  by  these  first  conditions  of  their 
lives.  The  case  of  Jewish  womanhood  is  the  supreme 
illustration  of  a  thesis  which  requires  no  experimental 
demonstration,  but  is  necessarily  true. 

Here,  then,  is  the  solution,  as  the  future  will  prove, 
of  the  problem  of  the  economic  status  of  woman.  At 
present,  though  Ellen  Key  is  the  only  feminist  writer 
who  recognizes  it,  women  can  compete  successfully 
with  men  only  at  the  cost  of  complete  womanhood, — 
and  that  is  a  price  which  society  as  a  whole  cannot  af- 
ford to  pay,  if  it  wishes  to  continue.  Therefore  we 
must,  in  effect,  pay  women  in  advance  for  their  work, 
the  actual  realization  of  the  value  of  which  is  always 
necessarily  deferred.  The  case  is  parallel  to  that  of 
expenditure  upon  forestry.  In  the  planting  of  trees 
or  the  nurture  of  babies  the  State  will  get  value  for  its 

1  money  in  the  long  run,  but  it  must  be  prepared  to  wait. 

i  States  are  slowly  becoming  more  provident,  and  al- 
ready we  are  coming  to  see  this  about  trees.  Soon 
we  shall  see  it  about  babies,  and  the  problem  of  the 
economic  status  of  woman  will  then  be  solved  in  prac- 
tice as  it  is  assuredly  soluble  in  principle. 

Mankind  must  first  learn  to  renounce  Mammon  and 
set  up  Life  as  its  God;  but  to  that  also  we  shall  come — 
or  perish,  for  Life  is  a  jealous  God  and  visits  the  sins 
of  the  fathers  upon  the  third  and  fourth  generation. 


CHAPTER    XXI 

THE    CHIEF   ENEMY   OF   WOMEN 

IF  we  believe  that  the  sexes  are  mutually  dependent 
and,  in  the  long  run,  can  neither  be  injured  nor  be- 
friended apart,  we  shall  be  prepared  to  expect  that 
the  chief  enemy  of  civilized  mankind  is  no  less  inimical 
to  women  than  to  men.  So  long  as  it  was  supposed 
that  drinking  merely  injured  the  drinker,  and  so  long  as 
the  drinkers  were  almost  entirely  men,  it  could  be  ar- 
gued by  persons  sufficiently  foolish  that  indulgence  in 
alcohol  was  a  male  vice  or  delight  which  really  did  not 
concern  women  at  all — if  men  choose  to  drink  or  to 
smoke  or  to  bet  or  to  play  games,  what  business  is  that 
of  women?  It  is  an  argument  which  would  not  appeal 
to  the  mind  of  the  primitive  lawgiver,  and  can  be  ac- 
cepted by  no  one  who  thinks  to-day. 

For  the  least  effects  of  drink  are  those  which  are 
seen  in  the  drinker.  The  question  of  alcoholism  is  not 
one  of  the  abuse  of  a  good  thing,  here  and  there  in- 
juring those  who  take  it  to  excess,  but  is  a  national  ques- 
tion which  affects  the  entire  community,  abstainers,  and 
drinkers,  men,  women  and  children,  present  and  to 
come.  No  one  who  has  seriously  studied  the  action  of 
alcohol  on  civilization  can  question  that  it  is  our  chief 
external  enemy.  We  must  use  the  word  external  for 

348 


The  Chief  Enemy  of  TV  omen  349 

the  best  of  good  reasons,  since  we  know  that  always 
and  everywhere  man's  chief  foes  are  those  of  his  own 
household — his  own  proneness  to  injure  himself  and 
others.  And  alcohol,  indeed,  would  not  be  our  chief 
external  enemy  were  it  not  for  the  very  fact  that  its 
malign  power  is  chiefly  exerted  by  a  degradation  of  the 
man  within.  It  is  a  material  thing  and  no  part  of  our 
psychological  nature.  So  long  as  it  is  kept  outside  us 
it  has  the  most  admirable  uses,  which  are  yearly  be- 
coming more  various  and  important;  but,  taken  within, 
it  alters  the  human  constitution,  and  hereby  achieves 
its  title  as  our  worst  enemy. 

People  who  estimate  the  influence  of  alcohol  by 
means  of  the  alcoholic  death-rate  or  by  the  rate  of  con- 
victions for  drunkenness  will  not  readily  accept  the 
doctrine  that  alcohol  is  a  greater  enemy  of  women  than 
of  men.  Yet  assuredly  this  is  true.  It  is  an  axio- 
matic and  first  principle  that  whatever  injures  one  sex 
injures  the  other,  and  whilst  drinking  on  the  part  of 
women  at  present  injures  men  as  a  whole  in  compara- 
tively small  degree,  the  consumption  of  alcohol  by  men 
works  enormous  injury  upon  women  indirectly,  in  ad- 
dition to  that  direct  injury  which  civilized  women  are 
yearly  inflicting  more  gravely  upon  themselves,  at  any 
rate  in  Great  Britain. 

Woman,  we  have  argued,  is  Nature's  supreme  organ 
of  the  future,  and  just  as  she  is  mediate  between  men 
and  the  future,  so  men  are  mediate  between  her  and  the 
present.  For  the  individual  woman  and  the  present, 
the  quality  of  the  manhood  which  constitutes  her  hu- 
man environment  is  more  important  than  anything  else. 


35°  Woman  and  Womanhood 

If  the  manhood  is  withdrawn  and  she  is  thrown  upon 
her  own  resources,  there  is  disaster;  if  the  manhood 
be  damaged  or  degenerate,  so  much  the  worse  for  the 
woman;  if  the  manhood  be  of  the  best,  there  and  only 
there  are  the  best  conditions  provided  for  the  highest 
womanhood. 

First,  then,  let  us  observe  how  alcohol  injures  women 
by  its  contribution  to  the  male  death-rate.  Allusion 
has  already  been  made  to  a  simple  statistical  enquiry 
which  I  made  a  few  years  ago  in  regard  to  the  influence 
of  alcohol  as  a  maker  of  widows  and  orphans.  The 
results  of  that  enquiry  may  here  be  quoted,  having  only 
appeared  in  the  daily  press  hitherto.  They  will  suf- 
fice to  show  that  alcohol  on  this  ground  alone  is  a  great 
enemy  of  women,  and  especially  of  wives.  The  fol- 
lowing is  the  conclusion  published  in  several  papers  in 
England  in  November,  1908: — 

"  Some  time  ago  we  heard  a  good  deal,  both  in  and  out  of 
Parliament,  about  the  debenture  widow  whose  little  all  is  in- 
vested in  brewery  securities.  There  is,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
widow  so  made  by  alcohol.  I  am  not  aware  that  anyone  has 
attempted  to  estimate  the  approximate  number  of  each  of 
these  two  classes.  The  following  is  merely  a  rude  approxi- 
mation. 

It  has  been  stated  that  there  are  half  a  million  persons 
who  have  invested  money  in  the  licensed  trade.  Let  us  allow 
that  half  of  these  are  men.  The  death-rate  of  all  males, 
above  fifteen  years  of  age,  is  slightly  over  sixteen  per  1,000. 
At  the  census  of  1901,  536  in  each  1,000  males  aged  fifteen 
years  and  upwards  were  found  to  be  married.  Ignoring  the 
differential  death-rate  of  the  married  as  compared  with 
bachelors  and  widows,  it  follows  that  about  4,100  male  in- 


The  Chief  Enemy  of  Women  351 

vestors  in  the  licensed  trade  die  each  year,  of  whom  some 
2,197  will  be  married  men,  leaving  behind  them  the  same  num- 
ber of  widows  entirely  or  partly  dependent  on  these  invest- 
ments. 

The  widows  made  by  drink  are  nearly  six  times  as  many. 

Numerous  inquiries  at  home  and  abroad  agree  somewhat 
closely  in  stating  14  per  cent,  of  the  entire  death-rate  to  be 
due  to  alcohol.  The  proportion  of  one  in  seven  is  accepted 
by  Dr.  Archdall  Reid,  who  considers  that  all  efforts  to  re- 
strain drinking  increase  drunkenness.  I  do  not  think  the 
justness  of  this  figure  can  be  disputed  at  all,  except  as  an 
under-estimate.  We  are  here  dealing  with  male  deaths  only, 
and  I  will  do  my  contention  the  obvious  injustice  of  suppos- 
ing that  the  proportion  of  deaths  due  wholly  or  in  part  to 
alcohol  is  no  higher  amongst  men  than  amongst  women.  If 
one  could  allow  for  the  existing  difference,  the  result  would 
be  even  more  terrible. 

Taking  the  figures  for  1906  for  England  and  Wales  alone, 
we  have  167,307  deaths  of  males  over  fifteen;  23,422  of  these 
wholly  or  partly  due  to  alcohol,  and  of  this  number  12,554 
were  married  men  (i.  e.,  536  per  1,000).  The  average  size 
of  a  family  in  England  and  Wales  is  4.62,  according  to 
Whitaker.  If  we  multiply  the  number  of  widows,  12,554, 
by  3.62,  we  shall  have  an  approximation  to  the  number  of 
widows  and  orphans  made  by  alcohol  in  1906.  There  were 
45,445,  or  over  124  widows  and  orphans  made  by  alcohol 
every  day  in  the  year. 

We  may  now  note  some  further  data  helping  us  to  com- 
pare the  12,554  alcohol-made  widows  with  the  2,197  whose 
husbands'  fortunes  were  wholly  or  in  part  bound  up  with  the 
welfare  of  the  licensed  trade.  (Of  these  latter,  also,  of 
course,  a  large  proportion  would  be  alcohol-made.) 

Dr.  Tatham's  recently  published  letter  on  occupational 
mortality  in  the  three  years,  1900,  1901,  1902,  informs  us  as 


352  Woman  and  Womanhood 

to  twenty-one  occupations  in  which  the  alcoholic  death-rate  is 
grossly  excessive.  In  these  twenty-one  occupations  selected 
by  Dr.  Tatham  as  having  an  alcohol  mortality  which  exceeds 
the  standard  by  at  least  50  per  cent.,  we  can  work  out  the 
alcohol  factor  and  find  that  it  amounts  to  24.5  per  cent.  The 
table  would  take  up  too  much  space  for  me  to  ask  you  to  print 
it,  but  it  is  ready  on  demand,  public  or  private.  The  figures 
work  out  to  show  that  5,092  married  men  in  these  twenty-one 
trades  died  in  each  year  from  alcohol.  (I  have  taken  24.5 
per  cent,  of  the  whole  number  of  deaths  in  the  three  years, 
and  reckoned  the  married  proportion  of  these.) 

The  calculation  shows  that  in  these  twenty-one  occupations 
the  comparative  alcohol  mortality  is  24.5  per  cent.,  as  against 
only  12  per  cent,  in  all  other  occupations. 

Amongst  the  occupations  in  Dr.  Tatham's  table  may  be 
noted  coalheaver,  coach,  cab,  etc.,  service,  groom,  butcher, 
messenger,  tobacconist,  general  labourer,  general  shopkeeper, 
brewer,  chimney  sweep,  dock  labourer,  hawker,  publican,  inn 
and  hotel  servants.  A  glance  at  the  table  will  show  that  in 
most  cases  the  men  who  are  dying  are  "  industrial  drinkers," 
who  frequent  public-houses  in  the  districts  where  the  reduc- 
tion in  the  number  of  the  licenses  under  the  present  Bill  will 
occur.  Often  nowadays  the  widows  are  heavy  drinkers,  and 
the  lives  of  their  children  centre  round  the  public-house. 

If  the  only  wealth  of  a  nation  is  its  life,  and  history  teaches 
no  more  certain  truth — and  if,  since  individuals  are  mortal, 
the  quantity  and  quality  of  parenthood — or  of  childhood,  ac- 
cording to  the  point  of  view — are  the  supreme  factors  in  the 
destiny  of  nations,  do  not  the  foregoing  figures  warrant  the 
contention  that  he  who  at  this  date  is  for  alcohol  is  against 
England  ?  " 

It  has  been  shown  that  the  effect  of  alcohol  upon  the 
brain  persists  for  not  less  than  thirty  hours  after  the 


The  Chief  Enemy  of  Women  353 

last  dose.  But  more  than  two  years  have  now  passed 
since  the  foregoing  was  printed,  leaving  ample  time  for 
any  member  of  the  alcoholic  party  to  "  pull  himself 
together  "  and  demolish  it.  One  is  therefore  entitled 
to  assume  that  it  cannot  be  demolished;  on  the  con- 
trary, it  could  easily  be  shown  that  the  foregoing  fig- 
ures very  considerably  underrate  the  actual  number 
of  widows  and  orphans  who  must  be  made  by  alcohol 
in  this  country  every  year. 

All  students  of  modern  life,  however  greatly  they 
differ  in  their  methods  and  objects,  are  agreed  that 
the  question  of  the  economic  position  of  women  is  one 
of  the  gravest  of  our  time.  While  this  is  so,  it  may 
be  added  that  only  the  Eugenist  can  adequately  realize 
the  importance  of  this  question,  since  he  knows  that 
with  it  is  involved  the  all-important  matter  of  the  se- 
lection amongst  present  women  for  the  motherhood 
of  the  future.  Unfortunately,  as  we  have  seen,  the 
modern  trend  is  quite  definitely  in  the  direction  of  those 
of  our  guides,  whom  most  of  us  follow,  knowingly 
or  unknowingly,  because  they  have  the  brains  and  we 
have  not,  in  favouring  the  economic  position  of  women 
at  the  expense  of  male  responsibility.  Meanwhile  we 
have  the  economic  basis  of  society  as  it  is,  and  there  is 
no  more  serious  indictment  against  alcohol  than  this 
which  I  have  attempted  to  formulate  against  it  on  the 
ground  of  its  destruction  of  fatherhood.  Whatever 
the  rest  of  the  community  may  incline  to,  it  assuredly 
seems  that  the  wives,  from  palace  to  hovel,  ought  to 
be  enemies  of  this  great  enemy  of  theirs.  The  time 
will  certainly  come  when  the  woman  who  is  bringing 


354  Woman  and  Womanhood 

up  children  will  be  placed  in  a  position  of  economic  se- 
curity, and  when  indeed  all  other  persons  will  be  less 
secure  than  she  because  the  sane  State  of  the  future 
will  guarantee,  and  regard  as  the  first  charge  upon 
itself,  the  maintenance  of  the  conditions  necessary  for 
the  production  of  the  next  generation.  But  in  the 
chaos  in  which  we  welter,  widows  and  orphans  have  to 
take  their  chance.  Who  will  say  a  good  word  for  the 
substance  which  makes  them  by  tens  of  thousands  in 
England  and  Wales  alone  every  year? 

At  least  one  economic  aspect  of  this  question  may, 
however,  be  dealt  with  here.  In  a  rightly  constituted 
society  people  are  held  responsible  for  their  deeds. 
Parenthood  is  a  deed;  in  a  very  true  sense  it  is  a  more 
deliberate,  a  more  active,  more  self-determined  deed, 
on  the  part  of  the  father  than  on  the  part  of  the 
mother.  At  present  the  only  act  for  which  men  are 
held  irresponsible — for  our  practice  amounts  to  that — 
is  the  act  for  which,  above  all  others,  they  should  be 
held  responsible.  A  large  amount  of  the  money  now 
spent  by  men  on  alcohol  and  tobacco,  and  other  things 
which  shorten  their  lives,  and  are  needed  only  because 
they  create  a  need  for  themselves,  is  really  required  for 
the  interests  of  the  race.  Such  is  the  double  destruc- 
tion worked  by  the  alcoholic  form  of  this  waste  that 
if  the  average  sum,  say  six  shillings  a  week,  expended 
in  the  working-class  family  on  alcohol,  were  invested  on 
behalf  of  the  possible  widows  and  orphans,  not  only 
would  they  be  provided  for,  but  the  fathers  would  be 
saved,  and  they  would  not  become  widows  and  or- 
phans. In  days  to  come  it  will  be  discovered  that 


The  Chief  Enemy  of  Women  355 

such  matters  as  these  are  the  real  political  economy, 
the  absence  or  presence  of  tariffs,  the  incidence  of  taxa- 
tion and  the  like,  being  matters  of  no  consequence  or 
significance  whatever  compared  with  the  question,  fun- 
damental in  all  times  and  places  for  every  nation  and 
for  every  individual:  For  what  are  you  spending:  for 
bread  or  a  stone,  for  life  or  for  death? 

The  foregoing  has  been  chosen  for  the  forefront  of 
this  chapter  because  of  its  bearing  on  a  central  eco- 
nomic problem  of  the  time,  and  also  because,  for  some 
reason  or  other,  this  alcoholic  destruction  of  father- 
hood, though  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance,  has  hith- 
erto escaped  the  attention  of  sociological  students.  We 
pass  now  to  a  second  point,  of  a  wholly  different  char- 
acter, which  particularly  well  illustrates  certain  of  the 
general  principles  with  which  we  began.  The  supreme 
importance  of  alcohol  or  of  anything  else  for  human 
happiness  is  attained  only  through  its  influence  on  the 
selves  of  men  and  women.  It  is  upon  these  that  our 
happiness  depends — upon  the  nature  and  the  nurture, 
from  hour  to  hour,  of  our  selves  and  the  selves  with 
which  we  have  to  deal.  Above  all,  do  women  as  indi- 
viduals depend  for  their  happiness  upon  the  selves  of 
men,  as  we  have  suggested. 

Now  if  there  be  anything  certain  about  the  action 
of  alcohol  upon  the  brain,  it  is  that  it  degrades  the 
quality  of  the  self.  Much  of  the  cruder  pathology  of 
alcohol  is  open  to  doubt.  A  great  many  of  the  sup- 
posed degenerative  changes  in  nerve-cells,  which  were 
attributed  to  it  and  thought  to  be  irrevocable,  are  now 
interpreted  otherwise.  Chronic  alcoholism  is  looked 


356  Woman  and  Womanhood 

upon  by  such  foremost  students  as  Dr.  F.  W.  Mott, 
less  as  a  disease  due  to  organic  changes  produced  in 
the  brain  than  as  a  chronic  functional  derangement  due 
to  the  continued  action  of  a  poison.  This  newer  inter- 
pretation of  chronic  alcoholism  has  the  very  impor- 
tant practical  corollary  of  encouraging  us  to  the  belief, 
which  is  frequently  justifiable,  that  if  the  chronic  in- 
toxication ceases,  the  individual  may  completely  or  all 
but  completely  recover,  as  would  not  be  the  case  if 
the  fine  structure  of  his  brain  had  been  actually  de- 
stroyed. The  recent  modification  of  our  views  on  this 
subject  has,  however,  only  served  to  render  clearer  our 
understanding  of  the  mental  symptoms  of  alcoholism. 
Here  is  a  drug  which  poisons  the  organ  of  the  mind. 
The  action  of  a  single  dose  persists  for  a  far  longer 
period  than  used  to  be  supposed,  and  thus  we  now  know 
that  in  the  great  majority  of  civilized  men  everywhere, 
the  nervous  system,  which  is  the  home  of  the  self,  is 
continuously  under  the  influence  of  alcohol. 

That  influence,  as  we  have  said,  consistently  shows 
itself  in  a  degradation  of  the  quality  of  the  self.  The 
poison  deranges  first  the  latest  and  highest  products 
of  evolution;  it  beheads  a  man,  as  we  may  say,  in  thin 
slices  from  above  downwards.  Beginning  as  it  does 
with  the  most  human,  and  only  at  the  very  last  attack- 
ing the  most  animal  part  of  our  nervous  constitution, 
it  is  essentially  the  bestializer,  save  only  that  the  alco- 
holized human  being  is  much  lower  than  the  beast,  on 
the  general  principle,  Corruptlo  optimi  pessima — the 
corruption  of  the  best  is  the  worst. 

Now  wherever  alcohol  is  consumed  women  have  to 


The  Chief  Enemy  of  Women  357 

pay  the  penalty  for  its  daily  deterioration  in  the  human 
scale  of  the  men  with  whom  they  live;  nor  need  any 
reader  of  even  the  smallest  experience  require  any 
writer's  assurance  that  in  vast  numbers  of  such  cases 
the  woman  suffers  more  than  the  man.  He  has  its  mo- 
ments of  compensation,  inadequate  though  they  be;  she 
has  none. 

Whilst  women  suffer  in  every  respect  from  the  in- 
fluence of  alcohol  as  a  degrader  of  their  men,  most 
of  all  do  they  and  the  race  suffer  through  the  action 
of  alcohol  upon  the  racial  instinct.  In  my  book  on 
personal  hygiene  was  sought  an  interpretation  of  the 
difference  between  low  and  high  types  of  mankind 
largely  in  terms  of  their  success  or  failure  in  achieving 
what  may  be  called  the  "  transmutation  "  of  the  racial 
instinct.  In  less  metaphorical  language  this  transmu- 
tation depends  upon  the  measure  of  self-control  and 
deference  of  present  desire  to  future  purpose.  These 
are  supremelyhuman  characteristics,  and  there  are  none 
which  alcohol  more  surely  and  early  attacks.  Men  are 
not  so  constituted  that  they  are  at  all  likely  to  profit 
by  any  substance  which  keeps  their  racial  instinct  on 
its  original  and  less  than  human  plane,  and  certainly 
women  suffer  in  many  ways,  and  with  them  necessarily 
the  future  suffers,  just  because  of  this  action  of  alcohol 
upon  men. 

The  argument  need  not  be  elaborated,  but  it  may 
be  added  that  the  disastrous  action  upon  young  woman- 
hood of  the  consumption  of  alcohol  by  young  manhood 
is  greatly  increased  when  we  find,  as  we  do,  that  the 
young  women  start  drinking  too.  In  these  modern 


358  Woman  and  Womanhood 

days,  when  the  controlling  influence  of  religion  and  es- 
pecially of  religious  fear  is  steadily  relaxing,  the  young 
woman's  best  protection  is  to  be  found  in  her  own  judg- 
ment and  self-control  and  prevision  of  the  future.  But 
these  are  the  very  defences  which  alcohol  in  her  nerv- 
ous system  saps.  Every  social  worker  is  familiar  with 
the  daily  truth  that  young  womanhood  connives  at  its 
own  ruin  under  the  influence  of  alcohol,  where  other- 
wise it  need  not  have  fallen. 

This  last  consideration  leads  us  to  the  study  of  a 
phenomenon  which  in  many  respects  is  new  and  un- 
precedented, while  none  could  be  of  worse  omen. 

It  has  for  long  been  alleged  that  the  amount  of 
drinking  amongst  women  is  increasing.  When  writ- 
ing an  academic  thesis  on  the  consequences  of  city  life, 
I  attempted  to  discover  definite  evidence  on  this  point. 
Nothing  that  could  be  called  precise  was  forthcoming, 
though  the  evidence  was  abundant  that  the  general  as- 
sertion is  correct.  Drinking  amongst  women  means, 
of  course,  drinking  amongst  mothers.  It  means  drink- 
ing by  unborn  children.  No  one  concerned  with  the 
fundamentals  of  national  well-being  can  ignore  any- 
thing so  minatory.  Within  the  last  few  years,  much 
attention  has  been  directed  to  the  subject,  and  the 
Church  of  England  Temperance  Society,  for  instance, 
sent  out  a  form  of  inquiry  to  the  medical  profession 
as  to  their  experience  in  this  matter.  It  may  now  be 
stated,  without  any  fear  of  contradiction,  that  drinking 
has  greatly  increased  amongst  women  of  all  classes  dur- 
ing the  last  twenty  years,  and  especially,  it  seems  prob- 
able, during  the  latter  half  of  that  period.  Along  with 


The  Chief  Enemy  of  Women  359 

it  has  gone  an  increase  in  the  amount  of  drug-taking; 
some,  at  any  rate,  of  the  drugs  being  not  dissimilar  to 
alcohol  in  their  action  upon  mind  and  body. 

It  is  here  necessary  not  so  much  to  discuss  the  causes 
of  this  fact  as  to  insist  upon  its  consequences  and  indi- 
cate some  possible  remedies.  So  far  as  one  can  judge 
there  seem  to  be  three  principal  causes  for  this  increase 
of  drinking  amongst  women,  and  quite  briefly  they  may 
be  named  in  order  to  guide  the  subsequent  discussion, 
though  it  is  not  necessary  to  occupy  space  here  in  dis- 
cussing all  the  evidence  for  this  diagnosis. 

A  cause  of  some  importance  at  work  amongst  women 
of  the  middle  and  upper  classes  would  seem  to  be  the 
general  tendency  to  revolt  against  sex  restrictions  and 
limitations.  In  order  to  prove  themselves  the  equals 
of  men,  women  proceed  to  demonstrate  that  they 
are  capable  of  imitating  men's  vices  and  indulgences. 
The  trainer  of  chimpanzees  for  the  music-hall  acts  on 
the  same  principle.  Directly  the  animals  can  smoke 
and  drink,  they  are  such  good  imitations  of  men,  in  his 
judgment  and  that  of  his  patrons,  as  to  be  worthy  of 
exhibition.  Any  ape,  any  boy,  any  man,  can  learn  to 
smoke  and  drink.  It  may  be  taken  for  granted  that 
any  woman  can  do  likewise,  but  the  actual  demonstra- 
tion is  worse  than  superfluous. 

Much  more  important  as  a  cause  of  the  increased 
drinking  amongst  women  of  the  lower  classes  are  the 
modern  conditions  of  factory  and  industrial  life  which 
so  largely  take  women  out  of  the  home;  the  making  of 
life  being  neglected  in  order  to  serve  some  industry  or 
other  which,  if  it  costs  the  loss  of  the  coming  life,  is  a 


360  Woman  and  Womanhood 

national  cancer,  however  grateful  its  expansion  may 
appear  to  the  capitalist  or  the  Chancellor  of  the  Ex- 
chequer. As  the  nation  cares  nothing  for  its  girlhood 
nor  for  directing  employment  and  education  for  the 
supreme  business  of  motherhood,  upon  which  the  na- 
tional existence  is  always  staked,  vast  numbers  of 
women  in  early  adolescence  are  now  exposed  to  the 
very  conditions  of  temptation  outside  the  home  to 
which  so  many  of  their  brothers  have  succumbed.  The 
factory  girl  learns  to  drink,  and  when  she  marries  she 
takes  her  drinking  habits  with  her  into  her  home. 
Modern  industrialism,  therefore,  is  to  be  cited  as  one 
of  the  causes  for  the  increase  in  drinking  amongst 
women.  It  may  be  noted  that,  in  Italy,  the  temperate 
race  which,  according  to  one  elegant  but  baseless  the- 
ory, has  been  evolved  through  ages  of  past  drinking, 
is  proving  itself  intemperate  when  its  members  are  ex- 
posed in  towns  to  the  industrial  conditions  which  look 
like  national  success  and  the  continuance  of  which 
would  mean  national  ruin. 

A  third  cause  of  this  increase  is  to  be  found  in  the 
greatly  enhanced  facility  with  which  alcoholic  drinks 
can  now  be  obtained  by  women,  not  merely  outside  the 
home,  but  within  it.  So  far  as  Great  Britain  is  con- 
cerned we  must  trace  disastrous  consequences  to  the 
"  heaven-born  finance  "  of  a  former  illustrious  Chan- 
cellor of  the  Exchequer,  who  made  a  little  money  for 
the  State  by  selling  to  grocers  permission  to  sell  alco- 
holic liquors.  That  was  a  great  blow  at  woman- 
hood and  especially  motherhood;  not  to  mention  its 
lamentable  effect  in  raising  the  death-rate  amongst 


The  Chief  Enemy  of  Women  361 

grocers  in  that  intensely  obvious  and  inevitable  man- 
ner, the  increase  of  temptation,  which  nothing  can 
persuade  the  enemies  of  temperance  reform  to  under- 
stand. 

It  is  bad  enough  that  women  should  be  able  to  ob- 
tain alcohol  as  they  do  by  means  of  devices  which  may 
often  prevent  their  habits  from  being  discovered  at  all 
until  irreparable  mischief  has  been  done.  Here  the 
cunning  and  the  greed  of  commercialism  have  set  to 
work  to  fool  the  public  and  poison  it  by  a  systematic 
practice  which  is  injurious  to  all  sections  of  the  com- 
munity, but  especially  to  women,  and  which  cannot  be 
too  widely  reprobated  and  exposed.  All  honour  is 
due  to  the  British  Medical  Journal,  the  official  organ 
of  the  British  Medical  Association,  for  its  recent  at- 
tention to  this  subject.  No  one  can  challenge  it  when 
it  makes  the  following  assertion  regarding  meat-wines 
and  other  specifics  containing  alcohol,  which  are  now 
so  widely  advertised  and  consumed: — "It  may  be 
pointed  out  that  by  the  use  of  these  meat-wines  the 
alcoholic  habit  may  be  encouraged  and  established,  and 
that  it  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  they  possess  any 
high  nutritive  qualities."  The  following  are  analyses 
to  which  everyone  ought  to  be  able  to  have  reference, 
and  further  information  regarding  which  may  be  found 
in  the  British  Medical  Journal  for  March  27  and 
May  29,  1909.  Let  the  reader  first  note  what  pro- 
portions of  alcohol  are  contained  in  the  accepted  wines, 
the  danger  of  which  is  admitted  by  all,  and  then  let 
him  compare  those  figures  with  the  figures  which 
follow : — 


362  Woman  and  Womanhood 


Fluid  drachms 
in  a  wineglass- 
ful. 


ALCOHOL    IN    ORDINARY    WINES 

Port  . . .  .1 20  per  cent,  or  314 

Sherry    20     "     "       "  3% 

Champagne    10/15     "     "        "   1% 

Hock ..10     "     "       "1% 

Claret   9     "     "       "  1%. 

ALCOHOL    IN    MEAT    WINES 

Bendle's .    20.3  per  cent,  or  3% 

Bivo 19.2  "  "  "  3 

Bovril 20.15  "  "  "  3%   Fluid    drachms 

Glendenning's  20.8  "  "  "  3%  -in  a  wineglass- 

Lemco    17.26  "  "  "2%   ful. 

Vin    Regno ,  16.05  "  "  "  2l/2 

Wincarnis    19-6  "  "  "  3 

ALCOHOL    IN    TONIC    WINES 

Armbrecht's  Coca  Wine 15.05% 

Bugeaud's  Wine    , 14.80% 

Baudon's  Wine 12.75% 

Busart's  Wine 16.85% 

Christy's  Kola  Wine    18.85% 

Hall's   Wine    17.85% 

Mariani's  Coca  Wine   16.40% 

Marza  Wine    17.48% 

Nourry's    lodinated    Wine    1 1.50% 

Quina    Laroche   16.90% 

St.  Raphael  Quinquina    Wine    16.89% 

St.  Raphael  Tannin  Wine 14.65% 

Savar's  Coca  Wine 23.40% 

Serravallo's  Bark  and   Iron 17.26% 

Vana 19.20% 

Vibrona , 19-30% 


The  Chief  Enemy  of  Women  363 

In  order  to  complete  our  reference  to  this  subject, 
the  following  may  be  quoted  from  an  excellent  little 
pamphlet  which  is  published  by  the  National  Temper- 
ance League.  The  United  States  Government  Labo- 
ratory affords  striking  evidence  of  the  large  percent- 
ages of  alcohol  contained  in  specifics  which  are  stated 
to  be  largely  used  by  persons  who  profess  to  be  total 
abstainers.  Of  these  the  following  are  given  as  ex- 
amples : — 

Paine's   Celery   Compound .  21.00% 

Peruna     23.00% 

Brown's   Blood    Purifier    23.00% 

Brown's   Vervain   Restorer .  25.75% 

Hostetter's  Bitters    44.30% 

But  indeed  we  are  far  from  having  covered  the  ground 
in  Great  Britain  alone.  There  are  many  well-known 
preparations  which  consist  almost  entirely  of  alcohol 
and  water,  together  with  small  quantities  of  flavour- 
ing matter  nominally  medicinal.  Thus  we  find,  for 
instance,  the  following  proportions  of  alcohol  in — 

Powell's  Balsam  of  Aniseed ,.  . .  40.0% 

Dill's  Diabetic  Mixture 35.0% 

Congreve's  Balsamic  Elixir 25.5% 

Steven's  Consumption  Cure  . 21.3% 

Hood's  Sarsaparilla 19.6% 

There  are  also  other  compounds  such  as  Crosby's  Bal- 
samic Cough  Elixir,  Townsend's  American  Sarsapa- 
rilla, and  Warner's  Safe  Cure,  which  contain  from  8 
to  iol/>  per  cent,  of  alcohol.  As  the  British  Medical 


364  Woman  and  Womanhood 

Journal  justly  points  out,  in  a  mixture  of  which  a  table- 
spoonful  is  to  be  taken  five  or  six  times  a  day  a  pro- 
portion of  10  per  cent,  of  alcohol  is  by  no  means  negli- 
gible. 

Let  it  be  noted  further  that  though  most  malt  ex- 
tracts are  free  from  alcohol,  that  which  is  called  "  by- 
nin  "  contains  8.3  per  cent,  and  "  standard  liquid  "  5 
per  cent.  The  British  Medical  Journal  has  also  shown 
that  there  is  at  least  one  "  inebriety  cure  "  in  Great 
Britain  which  consists  of  a  liquid  containing  just  under 
30  per  cent,  of  alcohol. 

On  this  whole  subject  it  is  impossible  to  speak  too 
strongly,  more  especially  when  one  is  concerned  with 
the  interests  of  woman  and  womanhood.  It  is  true 
that  in  consequence  of  the  labours  of  those  few  keen 
workers  whom  the  impotent  and  the  meaningless  and 
the  selfish  call  fanatics,  we  are  making  a  beginning  in 
the  matter  of  education  on  Temperance.  But  apart 
from  that,  which  amounts  only  to  very  little  as  yet,  it  is 
the  lamentable  truth  that  the  State  does  absolutely 
nothing  whatever  to  protect  the  community  and  espe- 
cially its  women  from  the  manifold  evils  which  are 
involved  in  such  figures  as  those  here  quoted.  The 
State  wants  money,  and  life  is  a  trifle.  Anything  that 
can  pay  toll  to  the  State  may  therefore  go  without  fur- 
ther question.  A  tax  has  been  paid  on  all  the  alcohol 
in  these  things.  In  many  cases,  also,  a  further  tax  has 
been  paid  for  the  government  stamp  on  patent  medi- 
cines. That  the  medicine  may  be  dangerous,  that  it 
may  be  a  cruel  swindle,  that  it  may  take  from  consump- 
tives and  others  money  which  is  sorely  needed  for  air 


The  Chief  Enemy  of  Women  365 

and  food,  and  give  them  in  return  what  is  worse  than 
nothing — all  these  things  are  nothing  to  the  State  if 
the  tax  is  paid. 

Preparations  such  as  those  which  have  been  men- 
tioned above  have  no  place  or  status  whatever  in  scien- 
tific medicine.  Their  constituents  are  known  and  their 
action  is  known.  The  public  pays  for  sarsaparilla, 
for  instance,  and  simply  gets  a  20  per  cent,  solution  of 
flavoured  alcohol,  and  there  is  no  one  to  inform  it  that 
sarsaparilla  has  been  exhaustively  studied  by  pharma- 
cologists, employing  every  means  of  observation  and 
experiment  in  their  power,  and  that  none  of  them  have 
yet  been  able  to  detect  its  capacity  to  modify  the  body 
or  any  function  of  the  body  in  any  degree  at  all 
whether  in  health  or  disease.  This  is  only  one  of 
many  instances  that  might  be  named;  every  prepara- 
tion of  which  the  composition  is  not  stated  is  suspect. 
Men  are  paying  for  these  things  at  this  moment 
under  the  impression  that  they  are  buying  valuable 
tonics  which  will  save  their  wives  from  the  conse- 
quences of  the  drink  craving  and  help  to  avert  it. 
Large  numbers  of  women  are  ruining  themselves  in 
purse  and  in  body  quite  secretly  under  cover  of  these 
scandalous  abuses  which  are  allowed  to  go  on  from 
year  to  year,  and  which  are  undoubtedly  doing  more 
injury  to  the  feminine — that  is  to  say,  to  the  more  im- 
portant— half  of  the  community  in  each  succeeding 
year.  At  least  let  the  facts  be  known.  Let  liberty 
be  believed  in  and  encouraged;  but  if  these  things 
are  to  be  made  and  sold  and  bought,  let  their 
composition  be  stated  on  the  bottles.  The  composi- 


366  Woman  and  Womanhood 

tion  of  milk  is  supervised  by  the  State;  margarine, 
which  is  harmless  and  an  excellent  food,  may  not  be 
sold  as  butter;  alcohol,  which  is  noxious,  may  be  sold 
under  any  lying  name,  but  so  long  as  the  State  gets  its 
percentage,  it  is  well  pleased.  The  official  organ  of 
the  medical  profession  in  this  country  has  done  well 
to  draw  renewed  attention  to  this  subject.  Surely  it 
ought  to  be  possible  for  the  profession  and  the  advo- 
cates of  temperance  to  join  hands  for  the  promotion  of 
legislation  in  a  direction  where  reform  cannot  other- 
wise be  obtained.  Something,  one  hopes  and  believes, 
can  be  done  by  merely  writing  on  the  subject.  A  cer- 
tain number  of  women  who  read  this  book  will  be 
deterred  from  buying  these  things  on  finding  that  they 
are  simply  "  masked  alcohol  "  and  that  their  medicinal 
virtues  are  less  than  nil.  But  though  all  that  is  to  the 
good,  only  legislation  can  meet  the  real  need.  These 
preparations  offer  insidious  means  of  teaching  women 
to  drink,  and  when  the  habit  is  established,  nothing  can 
be  accomplished  by  revealing  to  the  victim  the  history 
of  its  origin.  The  minimum  demand  for  legislation 
should  be,  at  the  very  least,  that  all  preparations  of 
this  kind  should  have  their  composition  stated  with 
every  portion  of  them  that  is  vended  to  the  public. 
Assuredly  the  champions  of  womanhood  will  have  to 
take  this  matter  up  soon,  and  the  sooner  the  better. 
There  is  no  need  to  be  a  fanatic,  there  is  no  need  even 
to  be  a  teetotaler,  in  order  to  satisfy  oneself  that  here 
is  a  crying  abuse  which  is  ruining  the  unwarned  and  the 
unprotected  up  and  down  the  land,  and  which  is  quite 
definitely  and  obviously  within  the  capacity  of  legisla- 
tion to  control  effectively  and  finally. 


The  Chief  Enemy  of  Women  367 

Let  us  turn  now  to  the  general  question  of  the  or- 
ganic or  physiological  relations  between  womanhood 
and  alcohol.  Both  sexes  of  human  beings  are  identi- 
cal in  a  vast  majority  of  their  characters,  and  the  vari- 
ous reactions  to  alcohol  come  within  this  number. 
There  is  no  need  to  repeat  here  any  of  the  facts  and 
conclusions  which  have  been  set  forth  at  length  else- 
where. What  was  said  there  applies  to  women  as  to 
men.  That  is  true  so  far  as  the  individual  is  con- 
cerned and  it  is  also  true  that,  so  far  as  the  race  is  con- 
cerned, the  germ-plasm  or  germ-cells  in  both  sexes 
alike  may  be  injured  by  the  continued  consumption  of 
large  quantities  of  alcohol. 

There  remains  the  important  fact,  which  it  is  the 
present  writer's  constant  effort  to  bring  to  the  notice 
of  Eugenists,  that  alcohol  has  special  relations  to 
motherhood,  to  which  there  can  necessarily  be  no  cor- 
respondence in  the  case  of  the  other  sex,  and  though 
motherhood,  as  such,  is  not  the  subject  of  this  book, 
yet  it  would  be  most  pedantically  to  limit  the  useful- 
ness which  one  hopes  it  may  possess  if  we  were  to  omit 
the  discussion,  as  brief  as  possible,  of  the  effect  of  al- 
cohol upon  womanhood  at  the  time  when  womanhood 
is  expressing  itself  in  its  supreme  function. 

In  my  book  on  Eugenics  there  is  merely  the  briefest 
allusion  in  a  foot-note  to  this  subject,  and  I  confess  my- 
self now  ashamed  of  having  dealt  with  it  in  that  utterly 
inadequate  fashion.  In  practical  eugenics, — though 
sooth  to  say  when  eugenics  begins  to  become  practical 
many  professing  eugenists  seem  to  think  that  it  is  wan- 
dering from  the  point — the  great  fact  of  expectant 
motherhood  must  be  reckoned  with.  To  decline  to  do 


368  Woman  and  Womanhood 

so  is  in  effect  to  declare  that  we  are  greatly  concerned 
with  bringing  the  right  germ-cells  together,  but  have 
nothing  to  do  with  what  may  or  may  not  happen  to 
the  product  of  their  union.  We  desire,  however,  not 
merely  conjugated  germ-cells,  but  worthy  men  and 
women,  and  expectant  motherhood  is  therefore  part 
of  the  eugenic  province.  Unfortunately  it  is  easier  to 
invent  terms  and  categories  and  get  people  to  accept 
them  than  to  control  their  use  of  one's  terms  there- 
after. Otherwise,  I  should  forbid  the  use  of  the  term 
Eugenist  at  all  by  anyone  who  is  unprepared  to  move 
a  finger  or  utter  a  word  on  behalf  of  the  care  and  the 
protection  of  expectant  motherhood. 

It  is  quite  true  that  the  question  of  expectant  mother- 
hood has  nothing  to  do  with  heredity  in  the  proper 
sense  of  that  term.  We  are  dealing  now  with  "  nur- 
ture/' not  with  "  nature,"  but  we  are  dealing  with  a 
department  of  nurture  which  can  only  be  understood 
when  we  realize  that  human  beings  begin  their  lives 
nine  months  or  so  before  they  are  born,  and  that  the 
first  stage  of  their  nurture  is  coincident  with  what  we 
call  expectant  motherhood,  whilst  the  second  stage  of 
their  nurture,  normally  and  properly,  ought  to  be  co- 
incident with  what  we  may  call  nursing  motherhood. 

Let  us  then  acquaint  ourselves  with  the  fact,  fully 
established  by  experimental  and  chemical  observation, 
that  alcohol  given  to  the  expectant  mother  finds  its  way 
into  the  organism  of  the  child.  Thus,  as  we  should  ex- 
pect, alcohol  can  readily  be  demonstrated  in  a  new- 
born child  when  the  drug  has  been  given  to  the  mother 
just  before  its  birth. 


The  Chief  Enemy  of  Women  369 

It  must  be  understood  that  the  circulation  of  the 
mother  and  of  her  child  are  each  complete  and  self- 
contained.  They  come  into  relation  in  the  double  or- 
gan called  the  placenta,  and  it  has  been  exhaustively 
proved  that  this  organ  is  so  constituted  as  in  large 
measure  to  protect  the  child  from  injurious  influences 
acting  upon  and  in  the  mother.  We  may  therefore 
speak  of  the  placenta  as  a  filter.  Its  protective  action 
explains  the  facts,  so  familiar  to  medical  men  and  phil- 
anthropic workers,  that  healthy  and  undamaged  chil- 
dren are  often  born  to  mothers  who  are  stricken  with 
mortal  disease — most  notably,  perhaps,  in  the  case  of 
consumption.  It  becomes  a  most  important  matter  to 
ascertain  the  limits  of  the  placental  power,  and  by  ob- 
servation upon  human  beings  and  experiment  upon  the 
lower  animals  this  matter  has  been  very  thoroughly 
elucidated  of  late  years.  There  are  many  kinds  of 
poison,  and  many  varieties  of  those  living  poisons  that 
we  call  microbes,  which  the  placenta  does  not  allow  to 
pass  through  from  the  mother's  blood-vessels  into 
those  of  the  child,  and  which  are  unable,  fortunately 
for  the  child,  to  break  down  the  placental  resistance. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  are  certain  microbes  and  cer- 
tain poisons  which  readily  pass  through  the  placenta. 
Conspicuous  amongst  these  are  alcohol,  lead  and 
arsenic,  and  it  is  especially  important  to  realize  that 
alcohol  injures  the  child  not  merely  by  its  own  passage 
through  the  placenta,  but  by  injuring  that  organ,  so 
that  its  efficiency  as  a  filter  is  impaired.  On  the  whole 
subject  of  expectant  motherhood  and  the  morbid  in- 
fluences which  may  act  upon  it,  the  greatest  living  au- 


370  Woman  and  Womanhood 

thority  is  my  friend  and  teacher,  Dr.  J.  W.  Ballantyne 
of  Edinburgh.  He  contributed  an  important  paper  on 
this  subject  to  our  first  National  Conference  on  Infan- 
tile Mortality  held  in  1906.*  I  only  wish  it  were  pos- 
sible to  reproduce  in  full  here  Dr.  Ballantyne's  paper 
on  the  Ante-Natal  Causes  of  Infantile  Mortality.  The 
unread  critic  who  is  so  ready  with  the  word  fanatic 
whenever  alcohol  is  attacked  might  begin  to  derive 
from  it  some  faint  idea  of  the  quality  and  massiveness 
of  the  evidence  upon  which  our  case  is  based.  Here 
it  must  suffice  merely  to  quote  the  verdict  at  which  Dr. 
Ballantyne  arrives  after  surveying  all  the  evidence  on 
the  subject  that  had  been  obtained  up  to  the  year  1906. 
He  summarizes  as  follows : — 

"  It  must  then  be  concluded  that  parental  and  especially 
maternal  alcoholism  of  the  kind  to  which  the  name  of  chronic 
drunkenness  or  persistent  soaking  is  applied,  is  the  source  of 
both  ante-natal  and  post-natal  mortality.  It  acts  in  all  the 
three  ways  in  which  I  indicated  that  ante-natal  causes  can  be 
shown  to  act  in  relation  to  the  increase  of  infantile  mortality, 
viz.,  by  causing  abortions,  by  predisposing  to  premature  la- 
bours, and  by  weakening  the  infant  by  disease  or  deformity 
so  that  it  more  readily  succumbs  to  ordinary  morbid  influences 
at  and  after  birthv  By  causing  diseases  of  the  kidneys  and  of 
the  placenta  it  alsb  leads  to  that  failure  of  the  filter  to  which 
I  have  already  referred;  the  placenta  being  damaged,  not  only 
does  the  alcohol  more  readily  pass  through  it  itself,  but  it  is 
also  possible  for  other  poisons,  germs,  and  toxins  td  cross  over 
into  the  foetal  economy.  So  it  comes  about  that  the  most  dis- 
astrous consequences  are  entailed  upon  the  unborn  infant  in 

*  We  decided  to  reprint  the  Report  of  that  Conference,  and  «  few  copies  of  the 
reprint  are  still  obtainable* 


The  Chief  Enemy  of  Women  371 

connection  with  syphilis,  lead-poisoning,  fevers,  and  the  like 
in  the  intemperate  mother." 

The  foregoing  was  written  as  long  ago  as  1906,  and 
various  workers  have  helped  to  confirm  it  since  that 
date. 

We  must  further  learn  that  alcohol  taken  by  the 
mother  who  nurses  her  child  has  an  organic  relation  to 
the  child  after  birth.  It  is  true,  indeed,  that  according 
to  a  celebrated  observer,  Professor  von  Bunge,  the  in- 
fluence of  alcoholism  in  preceding  generations  is  such 
that  the  daughters  of  such  a  stock  are  mostly  unable  to 
nurse  their  children.  It  is  not  quite  certain  that  Pro- 
fessor von  Bunge  has  proved  his  case,  but  it  is  definitely 
proved  that  even  if  alcoholism  in  the  maternal  grand- 
parent has  not  altogether  prevented  a  child  from  being 
fed  in  the  natural  fashion,  it  may  yet  suffer  gravely  in 
consequence  of  receiving  alcohol  in  its  mother's  milk. 
In  the  case  of  the  nursing  mother,  there  is  one  fresh 
avenue  of  excretion  which  the  organism  can  employ 
for  ridding  itself  of  the  poison,  and  to  the  efforts  of  the 
lungs  and  the  kidneys  are  added  those  of  the  breasts. 
Alcohol  can  be  readily  traced  in  the  mother's  milk 
within  twenty  minutes  of  its  entry  into  her  stomach, 
and  may  be  detected  in  it  for  as  long  as  eight  hours 
after  a  large  dose.  Many  cases  are  on  record  where 
infants  at  the  breast  have  thus  become  the  subjects  of 
both  acute  and  chronic  alcoholic  poisoning.  We  have 
numerous  reports  of  convulsions  and  other  disorders 
occurring  in  infants  when  the  nurse  has  taken  liquor, 
and  ceasing  when  she  has  been  put  on  a  non-alcoholic 
diet.  A  most  distinguished  lady,  Dr.  Mary  Scharlieb, 


372  Woman  and  Womanhood 

may  be  quoted  in  this  connection,  or  the  reader  may 
indeed  refer  to  the  chapter,  "  Alcoholism  in  Relation 
to  Women  and  Children,"  contributed  by  her  to  the 
volume  "  The  Drink  Problem  "  in  my  New  Library 
of  Medicine.  She  says,  "  The  child,  then,  absolutely 
receives  alcohol  as  part  of  his  diet  with  the  worst  ef- 
fect upon  his  organs,  for  alcohol  has  a  greater  effect 
upon  cells  in  proportion  to  their  immaturity."  Fur- 
ther, as  she  points  out,  "  the  milk  of  the  alcoholic 
mother  not  only  contains  alcohol,  but  it  is  otherwise 
unsuitable  for  the  infant's  nourishment;  it  does  not 
contain  the  proper  proportions  of  proteid,  sugar,  fat, 
etc.,  and  it  is  therefore  not  suited  for  the  building  up 
of  a  healthy  body." 

It  is  plain  that  here  we  cannot  avoid  criticism  of  an 
almost  universal  medical  practice.  Our  concern  in  the 
present  volume  is  not  with  children  but  women;  and 
in  dealing  with  the  effects  of  maternal  alcoholism  upon 
childhood,  the  main  intention  is  being  kept  in  view. 
As  regards  the  giving  of  alcohol  to  the  nursing  mother, 
there  is  no  doubt  that  the  child  is  more  seriously  in 
danger  than  she  is.  There  is  no  doubt  also  that,  as 
one  has  often  pointed  out,  the  Children  Act  which  for- 
bids the  giving  of  alcohol  to  children  under  five  years 
old  is  being  broken  when  the  nursing  mother  takes  al- 
cohol. I  refer  to  this  subject  here  because  only  thus 
can  we  come  to  a  decision  on  the  question  whether  the 
nursing  mother  owes  the  taking  of  alcohol  as  a  duty  to 
her  child.  She  may  be  a  teetotaler;  she  may  fear  to 
take  alcohol;  and  she  may  be  authoritatively  told  that 
it  is  her  duty  to  do  so  because  the  quality  of  her  milk 


The  Chief  Enemy  of  Women  373 

will  be  improved.  In  such  a  case  she  may  yield,  though 
often  with  a  wry  face;  and  thus  we  have  the  frequent 
beginning  of  disasters  to  which  there  is  no  end. 

The  truth  is  that  the  medical  profession  has  long 
erred  in  this  respect.  Judgment  has  gone  by  super- 
fkials.  Undoubtedly  there  is  a  greater  bulk  of  milk 
when  stout  and  porter  are  taken.  But  everyone  knows 
that  ordinary  household  milk  may  come  from  the  cow 
or  from  the  pump.  The  question  is  not  how  much  bulk 
is  there,  but  what  does  the  bulk  consist  of?  Definite 
chemical  evidence,  which  may  be  repeated  a  thousand 
times,  and  which  is  allowed  to  go  unchallenged  by 
the  vast  host  of  doctors  who  are  prescribing  alcohol 
for  nursing  mothers  all  over  the  world,  shows  us  that 
its  influence  is  to  increase  the  bulk  of  the  milk  while 
reducing  the  amount  of  its  nutritive  constituents,  and 
adding  to  them  one  which  is  poisonous.  The  increase 
of  bulk  is  easy  to  explain.  Alcohol  is  exceedingly  avid 
of  water.  Thus  the  common  experience  that  alcoholic 
liquors  tend  to  increase  the  desire  for  liquid  can  readily 
be  explained.  Alcohol,  leaving  the  blood,  tends  to 
withdraw  with  itself,  if  it  can,  a  quantity  of  water. 
These  two,  in  the  milk,  between  them  maintain  the 
added  bulk  on  account  of  which  alcoholic  liquors  are 
so  widely  ordered  for  and  drunk  by  nursing  mothers 
throughout  the  civilized  world.  The  infant  mortality 
is  thus  contributed  to,  and  many  women  are  urged  and 
deceived  by  their  love  for  their  children  into  a  practice 
which  achieves  their  own  ruin.  Doctors  look  back  a 
hundred  years  or  so  and  observe  the  amazing  practices 
of  their  predecessors.  They  have  record  of  prescrip- 


374  Woman  and  Womanhood 

tions  and  treatments  which  were  ridiculous  or  disgust- 
ing or  trivial  or  painful;  they  have  abundant  record  of 
practices  which  were  deadly,  and  for  which  any  medi- 
cal man  at  the  present  day  might  be  called  upon  to 
pay  heavy  damages  or  indicted  for  manslaughter.  Yet 
in  the  matter  of  the  indiscriminate  and  ignorant  em- 
ployment of  alcohol,  in  defiance  of  overwhelmingly 
proved  facts  which  will  not  be  challenged  by  any  of 
those  whom  this  criticism  hits  and  who  will  virulently 
resent  it  and  decry  its  author,  doctors  of  the  present 
day  are  assuredly  earning  the  astonished  contempt  of 
their  successors  in  times  by  no  means  remote.  A  cer- 
tain number  of  women  who  nurse  or  will  nurse  will 
read  this  book.  Of  these  not  a  few  will  be  ordered 
various  alcoholic  beverages  by  their  medical  attendant 
in  order  to  aid  this  function.  Let  them  obey  his  orders 
when  he  has  satisfactorily  answered  the  following  ques- 
tions: Are  you  aware  that  part  of  the  alcohol  will  pass 
unchanged  through  my  breast  into  my  baby's  body? 
Are  you  aware  that  if  my  milk  is  analyzed  it  will  be 
found  to  contain  less  food  for  the  baby  with  more 
bulk  than  if  I  were  to  do  without  the  alcohol?  Are 
you  aware  that  careful  enquiry  and  observation  have 
shown  that  the  best  foods  for  the  making  of  milk  are 
those  which  contain  the  constituents  of  milk — as  seems 
not  unreasonable — like  milk  itself  and  bread  and  butter 
and  meat?  Can  you  begin  to  explain  any  imaginable 
process  by  which  either  the  animal  or  the  vegetable 
body  could  build  up  a  molecule  composed  as  the  mole- 
cule of  alcohol  is  into  any  of  the  nutritive  ingredients  in 
milk?  That  catechism  is  quite  short,  but  it  will  suffice. 


The  Chief  Enemy  of  Women  375 

A  serious  error  which  has  long  been  made  by  tem- 
perance workers  consists  in  supposing  that  the  problem 
of  alcoholism  is  the  problem  of  drunkenness.  They 
speak  of  "  the  sin  of  intemperance/'  and  by  that  term 
they  mean  only  such  intemperance  as  produces  what 
should  properly  be  called  acute  alcoholic  intoxication. 
The  friends  of  alcohol  eagerly  accept  an  error  which 
suits  their  case  so  admirably.  Nothing  can  suit  them 
better  than  to  assume  that  alcohol  does  no  ill  apart 
from  causing  drunkenness.  Better  still,  they  are  able 
to  quote  the  case  of  the  incurable  drunkard,  suffering 
from  an  uncontrollable  craving,  and  to  point  out  quite 
truly  that  he  will  get  drunk  in  any  case  no  matter  how 
many  public-houses,  for  instance,  we  close. 

It  was  always  a  gross  error  to  suppose  that  drunk- 
enness was  the  whole  of  the  evil  done  by  alcohol;  if, 
indeed,  it  be  one  per  cent,  of  it,  which  we  may  doubt. 
This  is  not  a  point  which  one  need  trouble  to  argue 
here,  except  in  so  far  as  our  right  understanding  of  it 
is  necessary  if  we  are  to  see  the  meaning  of  current 
changes  in  the  drinking  habits  of  the  people.  That 
women  are  drinking  more,  everyone  grants.  That  this 
is  evil  not  merely  for  the  women  of  the  present  but 
for  both  sexes  in  the  future,  I  am  constantly  asserting. 
But  it  will  not  do  at  all  to  use  mere  drunkenness  as 
our  measure  of  what  is  happening  amongst  women. 
We  know  that  in  either  sex  a  single  bout  of  drinking, 
say  once  a  week  on  Saturday  night,  may  leave  the  in- 
dividual little  worse,  may  injure  health  quite  in- 
appreciably, if  at  all;  it  may  not  interfere  with  his 
work,  and  may  even  be  of  small  economic  importance. 
In  such  a  coal-mining  county  as  Durham,  for  instance, 


376  Woman  and  Womanhood 

where  alcohol  cannot  be  drunk  in  association  with 
work  because  the  workman  and  his  fellows  know  that 
the  safety  of  their  lives  will  not  permit  it,  we  find  a 
huge  proportion  of  arrests  for  drunkenness,  and  it 
might  be  supposed  that  in  this  most  drunken  county 
in  England  we  should  find  the  highest  proportion  of 
permanent  consequences  of  alcoholism.  On  the  con- 
trary, as  Dr.  Sullivan  says,  "  owing  to  their  relative 
freedom  from  industrial  drinking  coal-miners  show  a 
remarkably  low  rate  of  alcoholic  mortality,  ranking 
in  fact  with  the  agriculturists  and  below  all  the  other 
industrial  groups."  Here  is  a  simple  statistical  fact 
which  continues  true  year  by  year,  and  the  significance 
of  which  must  be  insisted  upon. 

In  the  case  of  women,  the  very  obvious  and  natural 
tendency  is  for  the  proportion  of  drunkenness  to  the 
alcohol  consumed  to  be  much  lower  than  in  the  case  of 
men.  Drunkenness  is  commonly  the  result  of  con- 
vivial drinking.  A  company  of  men  get  together,  and 
they  help  each  other  to  get  drunk.  Women  are  not 
subjected  to  so  many  temptations  in  this  respect.  Their 
drinking  is  industrial  drinking, — above  all,  at  the  su- 
preme industry,  which  is  the  culture  of  the  racial  life. 
Like  other  industrial  drinking,  it  is  less  conspicuous 
than  convivial  drinking;  it  leads  to  few  arrests  for 
drunkenness,  but  it  has  far  graver  effects  on  the  indi- 
vidual, and  it  shows  its  consequences  in  the  industrial 
product  with  which  in  this  case  no  other  industrial  prod- 
uct can  compare.  Now  unless  we  disabuse  ourselves 
once  and  for  all  of  the  notion  that  the  drink  question 
is  merely  the  drunkenness  question,  we  shall  never  suc- 
ceed in  rightly  approaching  and  dealing  with  this  most 


T he  Chief  Enemy  of  Women  377 

ominous  development  of  modern  civilization,  to  which 
I  have  done  such  imperfect  justice  in  the  present 
chapter. 

Dr.  Sullivan  *  has  some  important  remarks  on  this 
subject  from  which  one  cannot  do  better  than  freely 
quote.  As  a  distinguished  and  experienced  Medical 
Officer  in  H.  M.  Prison  Service,  notably  at  Holloway, 
where  so  many  women  have  been  und.er  his  care,  Dr. 
Sullivan  has  very  special  credentials,  even  if  the  in- 
ternal evidence  of  his  book  did  not  convince  us.  He 
says  that : — 

"  The  domestic  occupations  which  are  the  chief  field  of 
women's  activities  obviously  allow  ample  opportunity  for  the 
continuance  of  alcoholic  habits  formed  prior  to  marriage. 
This  is  a  matter  of  much  importance.  For  the  ordinary  exist- 
ence of  the  working  man's  wife, with  its  succession  of  pregnan- 
cies and  sucklings,  and  the  management  of  a  brood  of  children 
in  cramped  surroundings,  will  of  itself  be  very  likely  to  pro- 
mote tippling;  and  if  a  knowledge  of  the  effect  of  alcohol  as 
an  industrial  excitant  has  been  acquired  by  the  factory  girl, 
it  is  pretty  sure  of  further  development  in  the  married  woman. 
Instances  of  this  sort,  in  which  the  discomforts  of  the  first 
pregnancy  stimulate  the  growth  of  a  rudimentary  habit  of 
industrial  drinking  to  confirmed  intemperance,  are  tolerably 
common  in  any  wide  experience  of  the  alcoholic." 

The  following  paragraph  must  also  be  quoted  for 
its  clear  indication  of  a  matter  which  is  of  prime  im- 
portance, which  no  one  denies,  and  yet  of  which  no 
statesman  or  politician  has  begun  to  take  cognizance : — 

"  The  employment  of  women  in  the  ordinary  industrial  oc- 
cupations not  only  involves  a  disorganization  of  their  domestic 
*  In  his  "  Alcoholism."      1906. 


378  Woman  and  Womanhood 

duties  if  they  are  married,  but  it  also  interferes  with  the  ac- 
quisition of  housewifely  knowledge  during  girlhood.  The 
result  is  that  appalling  ignorance  of  everything  connected  with 
cookery,  with  cleanliness,  with  the  management  of  children, 
which  make  the  average  wife  and  mother  in  the  lower  working 
class  in  this  country  one  of  the  most  helpless  and  thriftless  of 
beings,  and  which  therefore  impels  the  workman,  whose  com- 
fort depends  on  her,  not  only  to  spend  his  free  time  in  the 
public-house,  but  also  tends  to  make  him  look  to  alcohol  as  a 
necessary  condiment  with  his  tasteless  and  indigestible  diet. 
Both  directly  and  indirectly,  therefore,  the  employments  that 
withdraw  women  from  domestic  pursuits  are  likely  to  increase 
alcoholism,  and,  it  may  be  added,  to  increase  its  greatest  po- 
tency for  evil,  namely  its  influence  on  the  health  of  the  stock." 

Elsewhere  I  have  endeavoured  to  deal  with  the  gen- 
eral physiology  of  alcohol  and  its  relations  to  race- 
culture.  Here  our  special  concern  has  been  woman, 
and  not  woman  as  mother,  but  rather  woman  as  indi- 
vidual. We  have  had  specially  to  refer,  however,  to 
expectant  and  nursing  motherhood  because  each  of 
these  offers  special  temptations  and  opportunities  for 
the  beginning  of  the  alcoholic  habit  or  strengthening 
its  hold  in  a  deadly  fashion,  and  it  is  certainly  neces- 
sary for  us  to  know  that  the  supposed  advantages  to 
the  child,  which  constitute  a  new  argument  for  alcohol 
at  these  times,  are  not  advantages  but  injuries  which 
may  be  grave  and  often  fatal.  The  utterly  incompre- 
hensible thing  is  how  anyone  can  suppose  or  ever  could 
suppose  otherwise. 

It  is  necessary  to  add  a  few  words  to  the  foregoing 
since  there  has  recently  appeared  what  purports  to  be 


The  Chief  Enemy  of  Women  379 

a  contribution  to  some  of  the  problems  that  have  con- 
cerned us.  Part  of  the  foregoing  argument  has  rested 
upon  the  fact,  only  too  definitely,  variously  and  fre- 
quently proved,  that  alcoholism  in  women  prejudices 
the  performance  of  their  supreme  functions.  Com- 
plicated as  the  maternal  relation  to  the  future  is,  the 
relations  of  alcohol  to  the  problem  are  correspond- 
ingly so,  and  in  any  discussion  that  is  to  be  of  value 
we  must  draw  the  necessary  distinctions.  In  many 
scientific  contributions  to  the  subject  this  has  already 
been  done.  We  have  identified  certain  degenerate 
stocks  who  display  the  symptoms  of  alcoholism.  The 
alcohol  may  aggravate  their  degeneracy  but  it  is  not  the 
prime  cause  of  it  in  them,  though  it  may  have  been  so 
in  their  ancestors.  The  children  of  such  persons  are 
degenerate  also,  and  as  the  class  is  numerous  and  fer- 
tile there  is  here  a  social  problem  which  is  not  primarily 
a  problem  in  alcohol,  but  is  accidentally  connected 
therewith  simply  because  the  proneness  to  alcoholism 
is  a  symptom  of  the  degeneracy. 

Quite  distinct  from  the  foregoing  there  is  the  in- 
fluence of  alcohol  upon  mothers  and  motherhood  that 
would  otherwise  have  been  healthy.  Alcohol,  like  lead, 
as  has  been  shown  elsewhere,  may  injure  the  racial 
elements  in  the  mother  before  even  expectant  mother- 
hood occurs.  Later,  it  may  prejudice  both  expectant 
motherhood  and  nursing  motherhood;  further  it  is 
often  the  primary  cause  of  over-laying  and  of  chronic 
cruelty  and  neglect.  Until  quite  lately  there  was  also 
the  action  of  the  public-house  upon  the  children  to  be 
reckoned  with,  where  the  mother  visited  it  and  was  al- 


380  Woman  and  Womanhood 

lowed  to  take  them  with  her.  That,  however,  has 
been  at  last  put  a  stop  to  in  England,  following  the  ex- 
ample of  civilization  elsewhere. 

But  it  will  be  clear  that  the  problem  is  a  complicated 
one.  It  has  been  confidently  attacked  by  Professor 
Karl  Pearson  in  a  Report  upon  "  the  influence  of  pa- 
rental alcoholism  upon  the  offspring,"  and  the  conclu- 
sions of  that  Report  have  been  widely  circulated  and 
are  being  circulated  almost  wherever  the  monetary  in- 
terest of  alcohol  has  power.  Briefly,  Professor  Pear- 
son came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  children  of  drunken 
parents  are,  on  the  average,  superior  to  those  of  sober 
parents  in  physique  and  in  intelligence,  in  sight  and  in 
freedom  from  epilepsy  and  other  diseases.  This,  of 
course,  as  everybody  knows,  is  obvious  nonsense,  and 
the  only  problem  remaining  is  how  to  account  for  its 
assertion.  I  have  dealt  with  that  question  at  length 
elsewhere,*  and  here  need  only  note  in  a  word  that 
Professor  Pearson's  Report  includes  no  comparison  be- 
tween the  children  of  abstainers  and  drinkers,  since  the 
number  of  abstainers  was  too  few  to  be  treated  sepa- 
rately; that  Professor  Pearson  attaches  no  strict  mean- 
ing to  the  term  alcoholism,  by  which  he  means  anything 
from  what  the  word  really  means  down  to  a  general 
suspicion  that  the  parents  were  drinking  more  than  was 
good  for  themselves  or  their  home ;  and  finally  that  in 
studying  the  influence  of  alcohol  upon  offspring  Pro- 
fessor Pearson  has  omitted  to  enquire  in  a  single  case 
whether  the  alcoholism  or  the  offspring  came  first. 

*  In  the  articles,  "Racial  Poisons:  Alcohol,"  Eugenics  Review,  April,  1910,  and 
"  Professor  Karl  Pearson  on  Alcoholism  and  Offspring,"  British  Journal  of  Inebriety, 
Oct.,  1910. 


The  Chief  Enemy  of  Women  381 

The  Report  has  no  scientific  basis  whatever  and  has 
been  riddled  with  criticism  by  expert  students  of  every 
kind,  including  not  merely  students  of  alcoholism  but 
also  Professor  Alfred  Marshall  of  Cambridge,  the 
greatest  English-speaking  economist  of  the  time,  who 
has  shown  that  there  are  no  grounds  for  the  assump- 
tions made  by  Professor  Pearson  in  that  part  of  his 
argument  which  is  based  upon  the  economic  efficiency 
of  drinking  and  non-drinking  parents.  The  publica- 
tion of  this  Report  merely  hastens  the  rapid  deca- 
dence of  "  biometry,"  the  foundations  of  which  have 
already  been  sapped  by  the  re-discovery  of  Men- 
delism  in  1900;  but  it  was  necessary  to  refer  to  the 
matter  here,  since  in  the  advertisements  and  the  other 
printed  matter  paid  for  by  the  alcoholic  party,  the 
public  is  being  informed  that  the  children  of  alcoholic 
parents  have  been  proved  to  be,  on  the  whole,  superior 
to  those  of  non-alcoholic  parents.  This  question  has 
been  exhaustively  studied,  yet  again,  in  London  by  Dr. 
Sullivan,  in  Helsingfors  by  Professor  Laitinen,  and 
also  in  New  York  in  an  enquiry  which  actually  em- 
braced no  less  than  fifty-five  thousand  school  children. 
The  elementary  fallacies  entertained  by  Professor 
Pearson  were  of  course  avoided  and  the  uniform  re- 
sult in  these  and  in  a  host  of  other  enquiries  that  might 
be  named  is  the  only  result  which  could  be  imagined 
in  a  universe  where  causes  have  effects. 

The  particular  causes  under  consideration  have  been 
having  their  effects  for  a  very  long  time.  It  begins  to 
be  more  and  more  clear  that  they  have  played  a  great 
part  in  the  history  of  mankind.  As  the  "  history  "  we 


382  Woman  and  Womanhood 

learnt  at  school  is  more  and  more  discredited,  there  is 
slowly  coming  into  being  a  real  kind  of  history  which 
deals  with  the  essentials  of  national  life  and  death,  and 
is  based  upon  the  principles  of  organic  evolution.  This 
is  a  thesis  which  one  has  attempted  to  justify  in  a  pre- 
vious book,  but  one  aspect  of  it  must  be  recurred  to 
here.  Our  modern  study  of  various  diseases  and 
poisons  is  throwing  a  light  on  the  life  of  nations.  Take 
for  instance  the  modern  theories  as  to  the  influence  of 
malarial  poison  upon  Greece.  In  the  case  of  alcohol,we 
now  have  evidence  which  is  real  and  unchallengeable. 
The  properties  which  it  displays  when  we  study  it  to- 
day have  always  been  and  always  will  be  its  properties. 
We  find  that  it  has  certain  actions  on  living  protoplasm 
in  the  twentieth  century;  we  know  enough  of  the  uni- 
formity of  nature  to  realize  that  it  had  those  actions 
in  the  tenth  century,  and  will  have  them  in  the  thirtieth. 
As  we  study  under  the  microscope  the  influence  of  al- 
cohol upon  the  racial  tissues  in  the  individual,*  and 
therein  find  confirmation  of  experimental  study  and 
observation  by  all  the  other  means  available  to  science, 
we  begin  to  see  that  the  greatest  facts  of  history  are 
those  of  which  historians  have  no  word,  and  not  least 
amongst  these  has  ever  been  the  influence  of  alcohol 
upon  parenthood.  It  is  possible  to  adduce  arguments 
in  favour  of  the  view  that  the  practically  complete 
immunity  of  their  parenthood  from  alcohol  is  one 
of  the  great  factors  that  explain  the  all  but  unexam- 

*  This  study  has  only  just  begun,  but  remarkable  results  have  already  been  ob- 
tained. The  interested  reader  should  refer  to  the  Proceedings  of  the  Twelfth  Jntejv 
national  Congress  on  Alcoholism  held  in  London  in  1909. 


The  Chief  Enemy  of  Women  383 

pled  persistence  of  the  Jews  and  their  present  status  in 
the  van  of  the  world's  thought  and  work.  For  history 
it  is  the  parents  that  matter  as  against  the  non-parents, 
and  of  the  parents  it  is  the  mothers  even  more  than  the 
fathers.  The  freedom  of  the  Jews  as  a  whole  from 
alcoholism  is  more  marked  than  ever  in  the  case  of 
their  women;  that  is  to  say,  in  the  case  of  their  moth- 
ers. 

We  see  the  part-results  of  this  in  our  own  time  when 
we  compare  the  infant  mortality  amongst  the  Jews  with 
that  of  their  Gentile  neighbours  in  a  great  city  such  as 
London  or  Leeds.  As  everyone  should  know,  there  is 
a  huge  disparity  between  the  figures  in  the  two  cases, 
and  in  some  records  it  has  been  found  that  under  equal 
conditions  two  Gentile  babies  will  die  for  each  Jewish 
baby.  The  conditions  are  of  course  not  equal,  because 
the  Jewish  babies  have  Jewish  motherhood,  splendidly 
backed  up  as  it  usually  is  by  Jewish  fatherhood;  where- 
as the  Gentile  babies  have  a  very  inferior  parental  care. 
Now  if  it  were  that  infant  mortality,  as  most  people 
suppose,  simply  meant  the  death  of  a  certain  number 
of  babies,  the  foregoing  facts  would  have  no  particular 
bearing  upon  the  questions  of  racial  survival,  except  in 
so  far  as  those  questions  depend  upon  mere  numbers. 
But  the  advocates  of  the  great  campaign  against  infant 
mortality  have  always  maintained  that  the  actual  mor- 
tality is  only  one  effect  of  the  causes  which  produce  it. 
When  people  have  said  that  the  loss  of  a  certain  num- 
ber of  babies  mattered  little,  we  have  always  replied 
that  for  every  baby  killed  many  were  damaged.  This 
contention  has  now  been  proved  up  to  the  hilt  in  the 


384  Woman  and  Womanhood 

remarkable  official  enquiry,  the  first  of  its  kind,  made 
by  Dr.  Newsholme,  now  Chief  Medical  Officer  of  the 
Local  Government  Board.*  He  studied  infant  mor- 
tality in  relation  to  the  mortality  of  children  and  young 
people  at  all  subsequent  ages,  and  he  proved,  once  and 
for  all,  that  infant  mortality  is  what  we  have  always 
maintained  it  to  be,  not  merely  a  disaster  in  itself  but 
an  evidence  of  causes  which  injure  the  health  and  vig- 
our of  the  survivors  at  all  ages.  Wherever  infant 
mortality  is  highest,  there  child  mortality  is  highest, 
and  the  mortality  of  boys  and  girls  at  puberty  and  dur- 
ing the  early  years  of  adolescence  when  the  body  is 
preparing  for  and  becoming  capable  of  parenthood. 
The  evil  conditions  that  cause  infant  mortality  are  thus 
proved  to  be  far-reaching  and  much  wider  in  their  ef- 
fects than  any  but  the  students  of  the  subject  have  yet 
realized. 

This  chapter  must  be  brought  to  a  close,  but  it  may 
be  added  that  the  emergence  of  sober  nations,  such  as 
Japan  and  Turkey,  into  contemporary  history,  and  the 
possibilities  latent  in  China, — to  mention  none  other  of 
the  "  dying  nations,"  so  very  much  alive,  at  whom 
glass-eyed  politicians  used  to  sneer — constitutes  one  of 
the  major  facts  of  contemporary  history.  No  one  can 
yet  say  whether  these  nations  will  have  the  wisdom 
to  retain  their  ancient  habits  or  whether  they  will  ac- 
cept our  whisky  along  with  our  parliamentary  institu- 
tions and  motor-cars.  Much  future  history  rests  upon 
this  issue. 

*  This  Report,  published  in  1910,  can  readily  be  obtained  through   any  bookseller, 
Its  .number  is  Cd.  5163,  and  the  price  only  is.  3d. 


The  Chief  Enemy  of  IV omen  385 

But  I  have  little  doubt  that  whatever  happens  in  the 
case  of  Japan  and  Turkey,  Jewish  parenthood  will  re- 
tain the  quality  which  has  long  ago  become  fixed  as  a 
racial  characteristic,  and  that  the  race  which  has  sur- 
vived so  much  oppression  and  so  many  of  its  oppressors 
will  survive  contemporary  abuse  and  the  abusers.  Its 
women  nurse  their  own  babies  and  have  retained  the 
power  to  do  so.  Neither  before  birth  nor  after  do 
they  feed  the  life  that  is  to  be  on  alcohol;  they  lay 
rightly  the  foundations  of  the  future,  where  alone  those 
foundations  can  be  durably  laid.  The  reader  is  not 
necessarily  asked  to  admire  them  or  to  like  them  or  to 
speak  well  of  them,  but  if  he  desires  the  strength  and 
continuance  of  whatever  race  or  nation  he  belongs  to, 
he  will  do  well  to  imitate  them. 

It  seems  necessary  to  believe  in  the  yellow  peril, 
though  not,  of  course,  in  its  absurd  form  of  a  military 
nightmare.  The  pressure  of  population  is  the  irre- 
sistible force  of  history.  It  depends,  of  course,  upon 
parenthood,  and  more  especially  upon  motherhood  and 
therefore  upon  womanhood.  At  present  the  mother- 
hood of  the  yellow  races  is  sober.  If  it  remains  so, 
and  if  the  motherhood  of  Western  races  takes  the 
course  which  motherhood  has  taken  for  many  years 
past  in  England,  it  is  very  sure  that  in  the  Armageddon 
of  the  future,  those  ancient  races,  Semitic  and  Mongol, 
which  had  achieved  civilization  when  Europe  was  in 
the  Stone  Age,  will  be  in  a  position  of  immense  advan- 
tage as  against  our  own  race,  which  is  threatening,  at 
any  rate  in  England,  to  follow  the  example  of  many 
races  of  which  little  record,  or  none,  now  remains,  and 
drink  itself  to  death. 


CHAPTER   XXII 

CONCLUSION 

THE  plan  of  this  book  has  now  been  satisfied.  The 
reader  may  be  very  far  from  satisfied,  but  not,  it  is  to 
be  hoped,  on  the  ground  that  many  subjects  have  been 
omitted  which  might  quite  well  have  been  included  un- 
der the  title  of  Woman  and  Womanhood.  It  was 
better  to  confine  our  search  to  principles. 

For  it  seems  evident  that  civilization  is  at  the  part- 
ing of  the  ways  in  these  fundamental  matters.  The 
invention  of  aeroplanes  and  submarine  and  wireless 
telegraphy  and  the  like  is  of  no  more  moment  than  the 
fly  on  the  chariot  wheel,  compared  with  the  vital  recon- 
structions which  are  now  proceeding  or  imminent. 
The  business  of  the  thoughtful  at  this  juncture  is  to 
determine  principles,  for  principles  there  are  in  these 
matters,  if  they  can  be  discovered,  as  certain,  as  all- 
important  as  those  on  which  any  other  kind  of  science 
proceeds.  Just  as  the  physicist  must  hold  hard  by  his 
principles  of  motion  and  thermodynamics  and  radiation 
and  the  like,  so  the  sociologist  must  hold  hard  by  the 
organic  principles  which  determine  the  life  and  con- 
tinuance of  living  things.  Unless  we  base  our  projects 
for  mankind  upon  the  laws  of  life,  they  will  come  to 
naught,  as  such  projects  have  come  to  naught  not  once 
but  a  thousand  times  in  the  past. 

386 


Conclusion  387 

None  will  dare  dispute  these  assertions,  yet  what  do 
we  see  at  the  present  time?  On  what  grounds  is  the 
woman  question  fought,  and  by  what  kind  of  dispu- 
tants ?  It  is  fought,  as  everyone  knows,  on  the  grounds 
of  what  women  want,  or  rather,  what  a  particular  sec- 
tion of  half-instructed  women,  in  some  particular  time 
and  place,  think  they  want, — or  do  not  want — under 
the  influence  of  suggestion,  imitation  and  the  other  in- 
fluences which  determine  public  opinion.  It  is  fought 
on  the  grounds  of  precedent:  women  are  not  to  have 
votes  in  England  because  women  have  never  had  votes 
in  England,  or  they  are  to  have  votes  in  England  be- 
cause they  have  them  in  New  Zealand.  It  is  fought 
on  party  political  grounds,  none  the  less  potent  because 
they  are  not  honestly  acknowledged:  the  Liberal  and 
the  Conservative  parties  favour  or  disfavour  this  or 
that  Suffrage  Bill,  or  whatever  it  may  be,  according  to 
what  they  expect  to  be  its  effect  upon  their  voting 
strength.  It  is  fought  upon  financial  grounds,  as  when 
we  see  the  entire  force  of  the  alcoholic  party  arrayed 
against  the  claims  of  women,  as  in  the  nature  of  things 
it  always  has  been  and  always  will  be.  It  is  fought  on 
theological  grounds  by  clerics  who  quote  the  first 
chapter  of  Genesis;  and  on  anti-theological  grounds  by 
half-instructed  rationalists  who  attack  marriage  be- 
cause they  suppose  it  was  invented  by  the  Church. 

And  whose  voices  never  fail  among  the  disputants? 
Loudest  of  all  are  those  of  youth  of  both  sexes,  who 
know  nothing  and  want  to  know  nothing  and  who  have 
no  idea  that  there  is  anything  to  know  in  attempting 
to  decide  such  questions  as  this.  It  is  argued  in  the 


388  Woman  and  Womanhood 

House  of  Gramophones  and  such  places,  by  common 
politicians  of  the  type  the  many-headed  choose,  who 
would  do  better  to  confine  themselves  to  the  soiled 
questions  of  tariffs  and  the  like,  in  which  they  find  a 
native  joy.  It  is  argued  by  vast  numbers  of  men  who 
hate  or  fear  women,  and  women  who  hate  or  fear  men, 
as  if  any  imaginable  wisdom  on  this  question  or  any 
other  could  possibly  be  born  of  such  emotions. 

Yet  all  the  while  we  are  dealing  with  a  problem  in 
biology,  with  living  beings,  obeying  and  determined  by 
the  laws  of  life,  and  with  a  species  exhibiting  those  fun- 
damental facts  of  heredity,  variation,  bi-parental  re- 
production, sexual  selection,  instinct  and  the  like,  which 
are  mere  meaningless  names  to  nine  out  of  ten  of  the 
disputants,  and  yet  which  determine  them  and  their 
disputes  and  the  issues  thereof. 

If  these  contentions  be  correct,  there  is  plainly  much 
need  for  an  attempt,  howrever  imperfect,  to  set  forth 
the  first  principles  of  woman  and  womanhood.  Evi- 
dently the  time  for  discussion  of  detailed  questions  has 
not  yet  come,  since,  to  take  a  single  instance,  there  is 
not  yet  to  be  heard  on  either  side  of  the  controversy  a 
single  voice  asserting  the  fundamental  eugenic  neces- 
sity that,  at  whatever  cost,  the  best  women  must  be  se- 
lected for  motherhood,  and  the  contribution  of  their 
superiority  to  the  future  stock. 

Let  us  briefly  sum  up  the  substance  of  the  foregoing 
pages. 

First,  we  have  stated  the  eugenic  postulate,  failing 
to  grant  which  we  and  our  schemes,  our  votes  and  our 
hopes,  will  assuredly  disappear  or  decay,  as  must  all 
living  races  which  are  not  recruited  from  their  best. 


Conclusion  389 

Secondly,  we  have  proceeded  to  analyze  the  nature 
of  womanhood,  its  capacities  and  conditions,  assuming 
that  we  can  scarcely  discover  whither  it  should  go  un- 
less we  know  what  it  is.  To  the  party  politician,  hun- 
gry for  the  prizes  that  suit  his  soul  or  stomach,  such 
an  assumption  is  mere  foolish  pedantry;  and  the  ardent 
suffragist  will  have  little  more  to  say  to  it.  That, 
however,  cannot  be  helped.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  all 
parties,  as  parties,  will  unite  in  banning  the  views  herein 
expressed,  and  then  one  may  take  heart  of  grace  and 
dare  to  hope  that  there  is  something  in  them. 

They  may  be  crystallized  in  the  dictum  that  woman 
is  Nature's  supreme  organ  of  the  future.  This  is  not 
a  theory,  but  a  statement  of  evident  truth.  It  is  an 
essential  canon  of  what  one  might  call  the  philosophy 
of  biology,  and  applies  to  the  female  sex  throughout 
living  nature.  Birth  is  of  the  female  alone.  No  sub- 
human male,  nor  even  man  himself,  can  directly  achieve 
the  future;  the  greatest  statesman  or  law-giver  or 
founder  of  nations  can  only  work,  if  he  knew  it, 
through  womanhood.  The  greatest  of  these,  and 
their  name  is  very  far  from  legion,  was  evidently 
Moses,  as  history  shows,  and  he  acted  on  this  prin- 
ciple. On  the  other  hand,  those  who  have  sought  to 
achieve  the  future,  as  Napoleon  did,  failed  because  they 
defiled  and  flouted  womanhood.  The  best  men  died 
on  the  battlefield  and  the  worst  were  left  to  aid  the 
women  in  that  supreme  work  of  parenthood  by  which 
alone,  and  only  through  the  co-operation  of  men  and 
women,  the  future  is  made. 

Thirdly,  we  have  seen  it  to  follow  from  this  dedica- 
tion of  the  greater  and  vastly  more  valuable  part  of 


390  Woman  and  Womanhood 

woman's  energies  to  the  future  that,  just  in  proportion 
as  she  serves  it  and  devotes  herself  thereto,  she  needs 
present  support.  Biology  teaches  us  that  the  male  sex 
was  invented  for  this  purpose ;  doubtless  one  should  say 
for  this  "  increasing  purpose,"  since  it  is  scarcely  more 
than  foreshadowed  at  first  in  the  history  of  the  male 
sex.  The  study  of  life  has  clearly  proved  that  the 
male  sex  is  secondary  and  adjuvant,  and  that  its  essen- 
tially auxiliary  functions  for  the  race  have  been  increas- 
ing from  the  beginning  until  we  find  them  in  perfection 
wherever  two  parents  join  in  common  consecration 
and  devotion  to  their  supreme  task,  upon  which  all 
else  depends  and  without  which  nothing  else  could 
be. 

And  just  as  woman  is  mediate  between  man  and  the 
future,  so  man  is  mediate  between  woman  and  the  pres- 
ent. Woman  is  the  more  immediate  environment,  the 
special  providence,  so  to  say,  of  childhood;  and  man, 
in  a  rightly  constituted  society,  is  the  special  providence, 
the  more  immediate  environment  of  woman,  standing 
between  her  and  inanimate  Nature,  guarding  her,  tak- 
ing thought  for  her,  feeding  her,  using  his  special  mas- 
culine qualities  for  her — that  is  to  say,  in  the  long  run, 
for  the  future  of  the  race;  this  indeed  being  the  pur- 
pose for  which  Nature  has  contrived  all  individuals  of 
both  sexes.  If  we  prefer  such  phrases,  we  may  say 
that  the  future  or  the  children  are  parasitic  upon 
woman,  and  that  woman  is  "  parasitic  upon  the  male," 
which  is  one  woman's  way  of  putting  it.  Or  we  may 
say  that  these  are  the  natural  and  therefore  divine  re- 
lations of  the  various  forms  in  which  human  life  is  cast, 


Conclusion  391 

and  that  our  business  is  to  make  them  more  effective, 
more  provident  and  freer  from  the  factors  which  in  all 
ages  have  tended  to  injure  them. 

Fourthly,  we  have  everywhere  seen  cause  to  condemn 
sex-antagonism,  and  it  is  my  hope  that  no  page  or  line 
or  word  of  this  book  can  be  accused  of  illustrating  or 
justifying  or  inciting  to  or  even  attempting  to  palliate 
either  form  of  this  wholly  abominable  spirit  of  the  pit. 
If  such  places  there  be,  there  assuredly  is  misdirection 
and  falsity.  This  spirit  is  one  of  the  great  enemies 
of  mankind.  As  aroused  in  women  against  men,  it  has 
done  and  is  doing  no  little  harm;  as  exhibited  by  men 
against  the  righteous  claims  of  women,  it  is  one  of  the 
supremely  malign  forces  of  history.  Wherever  and 
however  displayed,  it  is  false  to  the  first  and  most  es- 
sential facts  of  life,  from  the  moment  of  the  evolution 
of  sex,  hundreds  of  millions  of  years  ago,  until  our  own 
time.  All  who  display  it,  however  excellent  their  in- 
tentions, are  enemies  of  mankind ;  all  who  work  upon  it 
for  their  own  ends,  political  and  personal,  without  feel- 
ing it,  are  beneath  disgust.  These  are  things  true  and 
necessary  to  be  said,  though  they  should  not  deter  us 
from  sympathizing  with  the  unhappy  individuals,  not  a 
few,  whose  lives  have  been  blasted  by  individuals  of 
the  other  sex,  and  who  show  the  natural  but  tragic  ten- 
dency to  make  their  private  injury  cause  for  resentment 
against  one-half  of  mankind.  Surveying  the  pages 
that  are  past,  I  am  almost  inclined  to  regret  that,  the 
plan  of  the  book  notwithstanding,  a  special  chapter  was 
not  devoted  to  Sex-Antagonism  and  to  a  demonstration 
on  biological  grounds  of  its  wickedness  and  pestilence 


392  Woman  and  Womanhood 

wherever  it  be  found,  and  whatever  plausible  case  for 
it  may  anywhere  be  made. 

If  the  sound  of  hope  is  not  heard  as  the  ground-tone 
of  these  chapters,  let  it  ring  through  all  else  at  the  end. 
I  am  an  optimist  because  I  am  an  evolutionist,  and  be- 
cause I  believe,  as  every  one  of  those  whom  I  call  Eu- 
genists  must,  that  the  best  is  yet  to  be.  The  dawn  is 
breaking  for  womanhood,  and  therefore  for  all  man- 
kind. If  we  are  asked  to  express  in  one  phrase  the 
reason  why  this  hope  is  justified,  it  is  because  the  long 
struggle  between  two  antithetic  conceptions  of  human 
society  is  reaching  a  definite  issue. 

These  radically  opposed  ideas  may  for  convenience 
be  called  the  organic  and  the  internecine.  The  inter- 
necine conception  of  society  forever  sets  nation  against 
nation,  race  against  race,  class  against  class,  sex  against 
sex,  individual  against  individual,  on  the  ground  that 
the  interest  of  one  must  be  the  injury  of  the  other.  It 
is  false.  Nay,  more,  for  man  living  his  life  on  this 
earth  as  he  must  and  will,  it  is  the  Great  Lie. 

And  it  is  being  found  out.  Even  international  trade 
and  commerce,  from  which  such  a  service  could  scarcely 
have  been  expected,  are  here  contributing  to  philos- 
ophy. Our  fathers  talked  of  the  comity  of  nations; 
we  are  beginning  to  discover  their  interdependence. 
The  coming  of  that  discovery  is  one  of  the  few  really 
new  things  under  the  sun.  Not  so  very  long  ago,  when 
mankind  was  far  less  numerous,  such  interdependence 
of  nations  did  not  exist;  they  were  self-sufficient,  just 
as  the  patriarchal  family  was  self-sufficient  still  further 
ago. 


Conclusion  393 

But  the  interdependence  of  the  sexes  is  so  far  from 
being  a  new  fact  that  it  is  as  old  as  the  evolution  of 
sex,  and  the  decadence  and  disappearance  of  partheno- 
genesis or  reproduction  from  the  female  sex  alone. 
Once  bi-parental  reproduction  becomes  necessary  for 
the  continuance  of  the  race,  both  sexes  sink  with  either, 
and  neither  can  swim  but  with  both.  Yet  so  far  are 
we  from  realizing  this  most  ancient  of  facts  to-day  that, 
on  both  sides  of  the  woman  question,  wonderful  to  re- 
late, are  to  be  found  controversialists  who  are  seeking 
to  deny  this  continuous  lesson  of  so  many  million  ages. 
The  reader  may  take  his  choice  of  folly  between  them. 
On  the  one  hand,  there  are  the  feminists  who  seek  to  do 
without  man, — except  for  the  minimum  physiological 
purpose.  The  women  are  to  sustain  the  present  and 
create  the  future  simultaneously,  and  man  is  to  be  re- 
duced, apparently,  to  the  function  of  the  drone.  Thus 
Mrs.  Oilman  in  u  Women  and  Economics."  Over 
against  her  and  those  who  think  with  her  are  to  be 
set  the  men,  and  women  too,  who  tell  us  that  "  men 
made  the  State/' — a  sufficiently  shameful  admission — 
and  that  women  have  no  business  with  these  things. 
Do  not  their  mothers  blush  for  such;  to  have  travailed 
so  much,  and  to  have  achieved  so  little? 

Fortunately,  however,  the  greater  number  of  those 
who  think  and  determine  the  deeds  of  the  mass  are 
beginning,  though  the  dawn  is  yet  very  faint,  to  per- 
ceive that  this  truth  of  the  interdependence  of  the  sexes, 
which  is  part  of  the  greater  truth  that  mankind  is  an 
organic  whole,  is  not  only  much  truer  than  ever  to-day, 
but  is  vital  to  our  salvation;  and  save  us  it  will.  In 


394  Woman  and  Womanhood 

so  far  as  we  are  keeping  women  inferior  to  men,  we 
must  raise  them;  in  so  far  as  we  are  keeping  men,  in 
other  and  certainly  no  less  important  respects,  inferior 
to  women,  we  must  raise  them.  The  future  needs  and 
will  obtain  the  utmost  of  the  highest  of  both  sexes. 
Thus  and  thus  only  "  springs  the  crowning  race  of  hu- 
man kind  " :  wherein,  as  we  hasten  to  the  dust,  living 
for  a  day,  yet  for  ever,  our  eyes  prophetic  may  behold 
the  sure  and  certain  hope  of  a  glorious  resurrection. 


INDEX   OF   SUBJECTS 


ADOLESCENCE,  124 

—  and   advertisements,   135 

-  and  alcohol,  228 
Alcohol,  54,  100 

-  accessibility  of,  360 

-  and    expectant    motherhood, 
367 

-  and  breast-feeding,  371 

-  and  industrialism,  360,  377 

-  and  tobacco  versus  children, 
201,  251,  354 

-  widows  and  orphans,  350 

—  and  womanhood,  348  et  seq. 
Alcoholism    and    lead    poisoning, 

379 

—  and  offspring,  380 

-  and  Jewish  survival,  382  et 
seq. 

Anti-Suffrage  societies,  16 
Asceticism,  old  and  new,  102 

BEES,    arguments    from,    31,    84, 

322 
Birth-rate,   fall   of,  288  et  seq. 

—  and  infant  mortality,  301 

—  and  marriage-rate,  312 
Board    of    Education    Syllabus, 

121 

Breast   feeding,   333   et  seq. 
-  and  alcohol,  371 
"  British    Medical    Journal  "    on 

meat,  wines,  etc.,  361   et  seq. 
Brooding  instinct  in  fowls 


seq. 
,  82 


CANADA'S  need  of  women,  269 
Childless  marriage,  244 
Children  Act,  265,  372 
Climacteric,  21,  77,  98 
Confirmation     and     adolescence, 

124 

Conservation  of  energy,  64 
-  and  higher  education,  79 


Contagious  diseases,  219 
Corset,  120,  186  et  seq. 
Cycling  for  women,  119 

DANCING,  120,  122 
Degeneracy  and  inaction,  42 
Determination  of  sex,  72  et  seq. 
Divorce,    conditions    of,    291    et 

seq. 

versus  separation,  293 

in  Germany,  293 

— Law  Reform  Union,  293 
Dolls   and  their  significance,  95, 

166 

EDUCATION,  definition  of,  156 

and  instruction,  161,  172 

—for  motherhood,  151,  158  et 
seq. 

Educational  question,  43 

Endowment   of  motherhood,  282 
et  seq.,  308 

Engagements,  length  of,  135 

Eugenic    feminism,   7 

Eugenics,  passim. 

"Evolution  of  Sex,"  67 

Exercise   in   girls'   schools,   Her- 
bert Spencer  on,  104  et  seq. 

Expectant  mother,  143,  367 

FABIAN  Society,  182 
Femaleness,  constitution  of,  76 

GAMES  versus  dumb-bells,  110 

— mixed,  113 
Gameto-genesis,  82 
Germ  cells  and  germ  plasm,  27, 

28,  81,  206,  367 

—its  immortality,  29 

and  sex  inheritance,  74 

Girls'  clubs,  123 
clothing,  125 


395 


396 


Index  of  Subjects 


Gonorrhoea,   223   et   seq. 
Gymnastics  versus;  play,  109 

HEMOPHILIA,  3 

Happiness  in  marriage,  236 

Heredity  and  responsibility,  195 

Heredity  of  sex,  73 

Higher  education,  151 

in  London,  128 

and  marriage  rate,  78 

and  conservation  of  energy, 

79 
Highest  education,  154 

IDENTICAL  twins,  55 
Illegitimacy,  148,  304,  336,  384 
Infant    mortality,    70,    172,    177, 

194,  259,  325 

Infant  mortality  and  alcohol,  370 
Insanity,  54,  225 
Instinct  and  emotion,  164 
Instinct,  Spencer's  definition  of, 

164 
Insurance  for  motherhood,  315 

JOT,  physiological  value  of,  112 

KAISER'S  creed,  11 
Knossos,  186 

LAW  of  multiplication,  66 
Leprosy,  220 

MALENESS,  constitution  of,  76 
"Man  before  speech,"  39 
Marriage  age,  196 

Metchnikoff  on,  199 

and  quality  of  children,  204 

conditions  of,  258 

and  the  "  superfluous  wom- 
an," 259  et  seq. 
"  Marriage  as  a  Trade,"  202 
Marriage,  social  function  of,  307 
Married  women's  labour,  306 
Mars,  the  parallel  from,  50 
Maternal  instinct,  163  et  seq. 

McDougal  on,  168  et  seq. 

in  the  cat,  171,  177  , 
leged  decadence  of,  174  et 


Mendelism,  4,  67,   74,   75,  81    et 

seq.,  330 

Menstrual  function,  108 
Monogamy   and  its  critics,  272 
Monogamy  and  polygamy,  261 
"  Morning  Post,    quotation  from, 

340 

Mortality  in  child-birth,  217 
Mosaic  legislation,  147 
Mother  and  child  worship,  148 
Motherhood,  endowment  of,  282 

physical  and  psychical,  83 

Motherhood  insurance,  315 

"  Mrs.  Warren's  Profession,"  138 

Muscles,    relative    value    of,    for 

women,  117 
Muscularity  and  vitality,  99 

NATURAL  selection,  32 
Nature  and  nurture,  52,  214 
Neanderthal  skull,  38 
Notification  of  Births  Act,  132 

ORGANIC  analysis  by  Mendelism, 
81 

PARENTAL  instinct,  95 

Parthenogenesis,  72 

Patent  medicines  and  alcohol,  361 

et  seq. 

Physical  fitness  for  marriage,  208 
Physical  training  of  girls,  99 
Physiological  division  of  labour, 

87 

Play  centres,  22 
Preventive   eugenics,  24 
Progress  and  the  nervous  system, 

definition  of,  37 

the  two  kinds  of,  38 

Prudery,  130,  132  et  seq. 
Psychical    fitness    for    marriage, 

211 
Puberty,  98,  124 

RACIAL  instinct,  167,  180,  225 
Racial  poisons,  24,  382 
Radium,  35 

"  Reproduction  "     and     "  parent- 
hood," 141 


Index  of  Names 


397 


Rescue  homes,  137 
"  Richard  Feverel,"  191 
Rights  of  mothers,  293  et  seq. 
of  women,  319 

SCOTLAND,   educational   strain   at 

puberty,  115 

Separation  versus  divorce,  293 
"  Sex  and  Character,"  68 
Sex  equality  and  sex  identity,  56 

et  seq. 

Sex  and  breathing,  93,  94 
Sex  and  the  blood,  93 
Sex  in  childhood,  92 
Sex  antagonism,  391 
"Sexual    instinct"    and    "racial 

instinct,"  144  et  seq. 
Sexual    attraction,    Spencer    on, 

240  et  seq. 
Sexual  selection,  144 
Skipping,  122 
Socialism,  182 
and  motherhood,  282 


Socialism  and  responsibility,  309 
Swedish  gymnastics,  121 
Swimming,  120 
Syphilis,  54,  222  et  seq. 

TERMS  of  specialization,  87 
Transmutation  of  instinct,  171 
of  sex,  251 

VACATION  schools,  22,  114 
Variation  within  a  sex,  89 

amongst  women,  90 

Venereal  diseases,  219  et  seq. 
Venus  of  Milo,  120,  186 
Vital  imports  and  exports,  267 
Vitality  superior  in  women,  99 

WIDOWHOOD,  causes  of,  217 

— and  motherhood,  303 
Women  and  colonization,  268  et 

seq.    ' 

"Women's  Charter,"  311,  315 
Women  and  economics,  327  et  teq. 


INDEX  OF  NAMES 


ARISTOTLE,  39 
Aurelius,  Marcus,  257 

BACON,  182 

Ballantyne,  Dr.  J.  W.,  370 

Bateson,  77 

Bonheur,  Rosa,  58 

Botticelli,  184 

Bouchard,  290 

Brieux,  138,  221 

Budin,  Prof.,  336 

Bunge,  Prof,  von,  334,  371 

Burke,  225 

Burns,  John,  325 

Butler,  Lady,  58 

CARLYLE,  8 

Chesterton,  G.  K.,  266,  333 

Clouston,  21 

Coleridge,  40,  178,  184 

Croom,  Sir  Halliday,  119 


DARWIN,  26,  47 

Duncan,  Miss  Isadora,  123 

Duncan,  Dr.  Matthews,  210 

EHRLICH,  233 

Eliot,  George,  58 

Ellis,  Dr.  Havelock,  61,  93,  118, 

119,  186 
Evans,  Dr.  Arthur,  186 

FAWCETT,  Mrs.,  21 
Forel,  86,  149 

GALTON,  7,  52,  203,  205,  208,  211 
Geddes  and  Thomson,  65,  84 
Gilman,  Mrs.  C.  P.,  327,  393 
Goethe,  225 

HAECKEL,  82 

Hamilton,  Miss  Cicely,  202 

Haynes,  E.  S.  P.,  293 


398 


Index  of  Names 


Helmholtz,  36 
Horsley,  254 
Huxley,  46 

KELVIN,  35 

Key,  Ellen,  8,  59,  347 

Kipling,  188 

LAITINEN,  Prof.  Taav,  381 
Lamarck,  158 
Lister,  20,  209 

MACLAREN,  Lady,  315 
Maeterlinck,  Maurice,  325 
Marshall,  Prof.  Alfred,  381 
McDougall,  Dr.  W.,  165 
Meredith,  48,  142 
Metchnikoff,  199 
Mill,  J.  S.,  174 
Milne-Edwards,  87 
Minot,  87 
Mosso,  120 
Mott,  Dr.  F.  W.,  356 

NAPOLEON,  305 
Nation,  Carrie,  23 
Newman,  Sir  George,  121 
Newsholme,  Dr.  A.,  384 
Nightingale,  Florence,  17 


PASTEUR,  217 
Pearson,  Karl,  205,  380 
Phillpotts,  Eden,  191 
Plato,  2,  56,  182 

ROTCH,  Prof.  Morgan,  336 
Ruskin,  19,  48,  150,  157,  189,  345 

SAPPHO,  58 

Scharlieb,  Dr.  Mary,  371 
Shakespeare,  52 

Spencer,  Herbert,  6,  45,  48,  64,  81, 
104,  129,  156,  159,  171,  240,  320 
St.  Francis,  46 
St.  Paul,  150 
Stevenson,  154 
Sullivan,  Dr.  W.  C.,  376,  381 

THALES,  64 

WARD,  Mrs.  Humphry,  21 
Ward,  Lester,  72,  261 
Weininger,  68 
Weismann,  26,  28,  82 
Wells,  H.  G.,  182,  282,  310,  313 
Westermarck,  186 
Wordsworth,  Dorothy,  14 
Wordsworth,  13,  48,  159,  189,  256 


.,, 

™" 


YC  3946! 


U.C.  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


CDOMIOIMSO 


260080 


